As Arroyo prepares her state of the nation address on Monday, social analysts have given her poor marks for missing development goals set by the government itself in 2004, with only two years left until the 2010 target.

New studies by the University of the Philippines - Center for Labor Justice (UP CLJ) and the Bangkok and Manila-based policy think tank Focus on the Global South revealed Arroyo's slow progress towards achieving key targets on economic growth, poverty reduction, and job generation.

The Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), crafted in 2004, expressly aims to generate ten million jobs by 2010, or roughly 1.6 million jobs each year, reduce poverty incidence to below 20%, and accelerate GDP growth to 7-8%.

MANILA – On July 10, over 200 sectoral representatives and civil society groups gathered at the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UP SOLAIR) Auditorium for an assessment conference on the state of the Filipino working people.  Dubbed “Ramdam mo ba ang Asenso?” and timed a mere two weeks before PGMA’s State of the Nation Address, the conference challenges the current administration’s slogan “Ramdam ang Kaunlaran”, by taking a critical look at key development targets laid out in the 2004-2010 Medium Term Philippine Development Plan.

To start off, the report card presented by the University of the Philippines - Center for Labor Justice (UP CLJ) details the failure of the government to meet its job creation and upgrading targets and the state of the different sectors of the economy amid the rising cost of basic commodities, joblessness and poverty.  The report unfurls the story behind the government’s official data, programs and policies, and highlights the contradictions of the Philippine economy today.

The CLJ report was followed with a snapshot of key economic indicators--of jobs, incomes, and poverty, provided by Aya Fabros, a research associate of Focus on the Global South, who further underscored the worsening poverty, insecurity and hunger situation in the country which remained fundamentally unaddressed by short-term populist programs put in place by the current administration.

Going beyond statistics, the conference provided a venue for the participants to share their own experiences, the challenges faced by their respective sectors, and to think of ways on how to move forward. Conference participants include farmers, fisherfolks, trade and labour groups, representatives of MSMEs, services sector and informal sector.
The conference was jointly hosted by the DRTS - Thematic Working Group on Trade and Industrial Policy, Thematic Working Group on Agriculture and Rural Development, and UP-Center for Labor Justice.