In the Red

When output exceeds input;

The economist says demand has exceeded supply.

The engineer talks about overload.

The banker calls it overdraft.

The politician exclaims, "What problem?"

The debate on the RH Bill reminds one of the basic accounting concepts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses.

Overpopulation stresses several things. Let's look at specific examples:

Food . On the demand side, the average Filipino consumes 1/3 kilo of rice everyday. A family of 3 consumes 1 kilo daily, 30 kilos per month.

If this family becomes 6 in the next 6 years, the demand doubles to 60 kilos per month. At the current P35.00/kilo, household expense for rice will increase from P1,050.00 to P2,100.00 per month. There are also additional expenses for clothing, living space, other grocery items, utilities and education.

On the production side, we cannot expect our palay rice fields to increase the hectares to keep up with demand. In my hometown in Sibulan, Negros Oriental, both sides of the highway between Maslog and Tubtubon used to be palay rice fields, but all that is gone now.

At present, the Philippines is the largest importer of rice in the world which it sells at a loss to the masses to the tune of P10 billion of losses per year in the past 10 years. The Philippines is home to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) where Thailand and Vietnam learned their technology.

The front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer of May 26, 2011 details the life of a family with 8 children with the mother on the way for a 9th child! She had 12 children but 4 already died. Not one of her kids has gone to school. Galunggong, the mother said, is already a delicacy!

She laughs when she says she used to escape her husbands advances by sleeping at her workplace but still he follows her there. She and her husband earns just over P5,000.00 a month.

On my way home every night, I pass by shanties and see families huddling around a bowl of noodles and rice on the floor made of bamboo slats which serves as their table.

Rizal once said that the youth is the hope of the fatherland. If the youth of today are subsisting on soupy noodles, what hope can the fatherland expect from them.

How can someone contribute on an empty stomach?

Education. On page 9 of the Philippine Daily Inquirer dated May 22, 2011, for school year 2011-2012, Eastern Visayas says they need 5,300 additional teachers. Funds budgeted is only for 587 new teachers.

At a teacher-student ratio of 1:40 (1 teacher to 40 students) it is a no-brainer to estimate the number of new students at around 212,000.

With a budget for only 587 teachers, the teacher-student ratio becomes a whopping 1:361. Even if private entities pitch in another 587 teachers to make it 1,174 new teachers, it doesn't help the ratio which still remains high at 1:180.

If we peg the final ratio at a stifling 1:60, 141,560 students still cannot be accommodated . Simply put, more than one-half of the 212,000 new elementary and high school students in Eastern Visayas will go into limbo.

This is only for Eastern Visayas alone. Inquirer’s editorial of May 29, says, the DepEd has a need to increase the number of classrooms to 60,000 from the present 45,000. This June, 22 million students are expected to fill our public elementary and high schools.

Lack of teachers, classrooms and books year-in and year-out.

How can someone contribute to nation-building with an empty head?

Health. In 2006, my baker tangled his arm in the roller at 1 o'clock in the morning. We arrived at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Hospital , a public hospital in Cebu City at around 2 o'clock and got our priority number. We were attended to at around 4 o'clock, two hours after we arrived.

There in the emergency room, were victims of stabbing incidents, patients brought in by ERUF, all waiting to be attended to. Just outside the emergency rooms, along the corridors, were lines of hospital beds all filled with patients. I also passed by the nursery and the cribs were cramped in a room with their mothers sitting by. It was a very pitiful sight.

For the Filipino masses, quality health care is simply beyond their reach.

How can someone contribute for the future if his body is too weak for the task?

Squatters. In Metro Manila this year, there are about 560,000 families of informal settlers - the kinder name for squatters. At an average of 6 persons per family, this translates to more than 3 million human beings and counting.

One in four of Metro Manila's 12 million residents is a squatter. Less than a handful will rise from these wretched situations.

Squatting stresses our zoning system. Squatting gives birth to other concerns.

Floods. Squatters clog waterways. They are the first casualties during floods and typhoons. The cost of evacuating them is huge - food, water, electricity, clothes.

In Cebu City, squatters have populated the Mahiga creek and similar natural waterways for lack of living space. Passing by the old Mactan Bridge in Cebu, shanties are littered on both sides near the seashores.

Fire. Almost always, fires consume whole squatter colonies because of lack of access for the fire trucks.

Pilferage. The cost of pilferage on power and water by squatters becomes our burden as the losses are added to our own electric and water bills

Politics. The poor are the richest source of votes come election time as they are the easiest to buy votes from. Notice that in most urban areas squatter enclaves are tolerated. Through this system, we sometimes elect unqualified local leaders who make decisions based on how he can get the same votes in the next elections.

Development stagnates in most areas. Going by track records, the Villafuertes, Fernando's and Robredo's have turned around and accelerated rapidly developments in their provinces and cities in relatively short periods of time. They are the exceptions.

Jobs and Wages. The labor sector sees only one side of the coin when it says that the economy is unable to create decent and productive work for all. They are correct but they should also form a deliberate parallel cognizance that the labor force is outpacing job creation. Even the number one economy, America, is struggling with an unemployment rate of around 10%.

Wage is a function of supply and demand. Simply put, our population growth is outstripping the capabilities of both the government and private businesses to create jobs. Even assuming our economy will grow 5% this year, it will not be enough to address the burgeoning population. What happens if there is no growth in the economy? What if problems like the 1997 Asian crisis and the sub-prime mortgage happen again? A big population gives us a small window within which to address problems.

Almost one million Filipino babies were born since P-Noy assumed office a year ago. Many of these come from teenage and unwanted pregnancies, majority from the poor sector. We are now more than 94 million strong.

When I was in grade school some 30 years ago, it was still around 60 million. Less the death rate, we are increasing by about a million Filipinos a year in the past 30 years.

The P404.00 legal minimum wage in Metro Manila is just within the threshold of poverty. The National Wages and Productivity Board currently sets the living wage in Metro Manila at P 917.00 per day or about P 27,510.00 per month. The living wage affords the worker money for decent living , money for food and non-food items, savings and investments for social security.

You walk in Makati, elementary and high school teachers, policemen, soldiers, janitors, security guards, sales ladies, receptionists, office workers, call center agents, bank employees, store clerks, beauticians, factory workers, drivers of bus, jeepneys and taxis, street vendors, waiters, MMDA personnel and other persons you meet, how many of them earn at least 27,510.00 per month?

Most businesses have taken advantage of this situation, the logic being, why pay honey when there are many scrambling in line for peanuts. Multitudes of unemployed is also a gold mine and gives the perfect setting for contractualization.

Workforce. While we are increasing our labor force without guaranteeing that we can capably equip them with the necessary skills, other countries like Canada are selective in increasing their population through acceptance of immigrants with the needed skills appropriate for their growing industries .

For so long, our economy is propped up by OFW's who bring home the bacon. Their remittance is one of the backbones of our economy. That is good but years from now, the skills we produce may not be anymore relevant economically. Take for instance the hundreds of thousands of our nurses who are now in the doldrums.

Right now, Saudi wants to reduce the salaries of our domestic helpers. Recently, Taiwan made it difficult for our workers to go there. Conflicts in the Middle East have driven many OFWs home. We are in competition with other OFWs from China and other Asian countries.

Last year, was the first time that there was a decrease in deployment of OFWs abroad. This news should already raise a red flag among our leaders.

Out-of-School Youths/Drop-outs.

Survivor: Philippine-style

Consider this.

Of 10 pupils who enter Grade I,

roughly 7 will finish Grade 6.

Out of these 7, only 4 will graduate from high school

About 2 will continue on to college, and:

only 1 out of the original 10 will ultimately posses a college degree.

Presently, only 9% of the 94 million Filipinos hold a college degree. 

(From various sources in the Internet)

In this Age of Information, it's a very backward fact.

Financial problems are the main reason for these drop-outs.

You go around major cities and see “rugby boys” sniffing away, some out in the open. “Rugby boys” is a misnomer since commercial rubber cements now have sniffing deterrents. They are actually buying the more expensive Vulcaseal and Fedseal, both roof sealants. Petty crimes can be traced to these “boys.”

And there is K + 12, that plan to increase the number of years in our primary and secondary education to be implemented in 2016. The added financial burden on the Filipino family will see an exodus of many students from private schools to public schools. There will also be an exodus from public schools to the ranks of the out-of-school youths. The loss in enrollment for private schools will drive tuition fees higher. That, or a stagnation in salaries of their teachers.

This, coupled with an ever-increasing population and inherent infrastructure and teacher deficiencies are sure-fire formulas to increase the number of out-of-school youths in the future.

Middle Class. A rapid population growth in the poor sector further increases the gap between rich and poor. It skews the redistribution of wealth.

“Kakha-Tuka.” Everyday, the poor majority buy soap, sardines, noodles, shampoo and rice. They drink. They consume electricity and water. They watch TV. They text and call. Can you imagine a cute can of corned beef now sold which can barely fill 3 tablespoons just so it can be affordable?

We cannot fault the big businesses for being very creative. This fact simply reinforces the current standard of living in the country. The economy may be growing in totality but it is scraped from the loose change of the millions of Juan dela Cruzes.

Most big businesses - telcos, banks, food and beverage companies, utility firms and consumer companies report growth in their revenues and billions in net income. The only growth the vast majority will ever experience in this lifetime is population growth.

A country should have a strong middle class to be stable. The increase in population among the poor sector will eventually reduce the percentage of middle class families. History has shown us that once the poor majority reaches a critical level, upheavals ensue - our EDSA before, the Chinese dynasties, turmoils in Egypt and other Middle East countries are all prime examples.

The World. Overpopulation is not exclusive to us Filipinos. The world's population is estimated to be 7 billion inhabitants by October 2011. By 2045, it is expected reach 9 billion.

When God said, “Go forth and multiply,” it may have been in the context of two persons in a big world. If humans continue to propagate indiscriminately, hunt other animals to extinction to feed the growing number of mouths to feed, ravage the habitats of other living things for his selfish survival, surely, our God must be frowning.

Faith is a dynamic process. The God of Abraham is the same as our God today. Yet, both Judaism and Islam also trace their roots directly to Father Abraham. Jesus came and changed a lot of things. His arrival spurred many Christian denominations. Christianity, Judaism, Islam and hosts of various sects all have a claims in Jerusalem.

There are other points in history where we can see this dynamism. The Crusades were made in the name of the Cross and there was Vaticans I and II. Several of our Popes have written encyclicals on human dignity and labor.

It’s highly probable that the Church and the Government can reach a compromise on the RH Bill as their objectives are the same.

God didn’t mean for any of His creature to suffer. Right now, many are suffering due to poverty directly caused by overpopulation.

The increase in demand for resources coupled with shrinking food production has continuously driven food, water and energy prices higher through the years.

When I first worked with a major oil company 15 years ago, the price of oil was still at $45 per barrel but with more gas guzzlers and a higher population, it’s now around $100. When I was in Grade 1, 30 years ago, an 8 oz. bottle of softdrink was only P 0.70. It is now P 8.00. Higher demand, higher prices.

The United States and China have vast and mechanized farms. A few years ago, on my way to Beijing from Jin Jiang which is a good 5 hours by plane, almost two hours of the way, one cannot see anything but uninterrupted agricultural fields. For comparison, a flight from Cebu to Manila takes only about an hour. One can only wonder how big an area China has devoted for food production. With their population of 1.2 billion, they can even afford to export their fruits and vegetables to us.

America and China already have one foot squarely planted in the future. Although water may be a problem in the future, at least they are doing something now to attain food security.

Whether it's the world population reaching 9 billion by 2045 or a Filipino family with 6 children, the fact is, too much demand for scarce resources is a problem.

Going back to the accounting concept, efforts must be done to improve the accounting equation of assets and liabilities and revenues and expenses of the people based on the cards we hold.

Reduce consumer prices. To redistribute wealth, the government must strive to increase the disposable income of the masses, not necessarily increase their salaries. The government must be creative in reducing prices of basic commodities. Cost of electricity and other utilities too must be reduced so that the masses can allocate resources to other equally important necessities such as education and healthcare.

It’s quite incomprehensible to think that even if we have one of the highest electricity rates in the world, Napocor still owes $3.78 billion. Yes, that is in dollars. We, the consumers, are now helping pay-off this #@!%?!!! debt. If the power industry is losing, how come private firms like Aboitiz, Lopez and San Miguel are gobbling up power-generating plants left and right? It’s the same refrain. Private individuals profit and then leave the debts to the government to be paid by taxpayers. Somewhere, there is a disconnect.

Increase Scholars. The government should consider mandating listed corporations to do more in education. A specific number of scholars in every region culled from the brightest of the poorest of the poor must be committed by the corporations’ social arms or foundations. Committing just 100 students is a pittance. The bigger the company, the more scholars it should send to school. Private tertiary schools must also be mandated to increase the number of in-house scholars, say, a percentage of enrolled students. This will fast-track bridging the haves and the have-nots. Priorities must be made for students in depressed areas, like in Mindanao.

In the long-term, this is better than dole-outs of food and goods. Give a man fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime.

Reduce smoking. Cigarette smoking is a big drain in the disposable income of the poor. The average Filipino smoker spends at least P15 for a pack of the cheapest brand of cigarette. That is an additional cost of about P450.00 per month, around 10% or more of the poor’s monthly average income.

Cigarettes must be taxed aggressively. In 2008 alone, 81 billion sticks of cigarette were sold in the entire archipelago, many of these bought by “kargadors,” drivers, laborers, carpenters, construction workers, students and “istambays.”

Aside from increased tax revenues, it will reduce healthcare costs related to smoking, improve the health of the citizens and increase food production through conversion of tobacco fields to other agricultural products.

Allow the Peso to Depreciate. Aside from the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) which is being pushed by the government to entice investments and create jobs, the government must also consider allowing the peso to depreciate. This will ease the pressure on public spending for infrastructures, which again, will be funded by debts.

Although this will increase our external debts, this will also jump start our export sector creating still more jobs in garments, electronics, petrochemicals and agriculture products. Depreciating the value of the peso will increase value of foreign remittances which will be a boon to dependents of OFWs increasing spending. Filipinos abroad will find it cheaper to come home for a vacation. The government wWill be able to preserve our dollar reserves as it will not be pressured to unload dollars in hot money outflows.

The increase in investments and jobs will have a multiplier effect in our economy. Allowing more businesses will allow more competition which we all know will drive down prices increasing the disposable income of Filipinos which will attract still more investors.

Smuggling will also ease up a bit as foreign goods will become more expensive. There will be a revival of locally manufactured products.

Furthermore, allowing the peso to depreciate will regulate money outflow. The no. 2 and no. 3 economies of the world have done it. Japan did it after World War II and China is continuously resisting calls for its Renminbi to appreciate.

Right now, some of our export industries have been wasted in favor of cheaper imports- the garment industry is one. Our country is already importing agricultural products - legally and illegally. Onions, garlic and even dressed chicken are cheaper from elsewhere.

We cannot be too reliant on other countries for our food requirement as a squeeze in the future will cause a spike in prices and the poor, who are in the front lines, will be the first ones to suffer.

Investments should be seamless with our Bureaucracy. Simplified and uniform investment policies must be adopted in all provinces, cities and municipalities. Brochures should be prepared and made available to the public.

In Mandaue City in Cebu this year, the steps in business renewal, have been drastically reduced and all in one place, making one complete the transaction in less than an hour. They even went from business to business to announce their service. In China, they say that it only takes 2 weeks to have all the approvals to set up a business even multi-million ones. Even if there are willing participants but the process is tedious and long, many will be discouraged to invest.

Reduce Corruption. And yes, corruption! Corruption is a big drain in our coffers. We already know what to do with this, yet we don't do it. The key is to reshuffle en mass, not just change the top brasses. Hire new ones and put the old ones far from where they can teach their dirty tricks.

With millions of Filipinos, there must be at least a thousand out there who are competent. Recycling officials will deprive the citizenry of creative ideas and new ways of doing things.

A janitor at the Bureau of Customs is not expected to own a fleet of cars and many residential units but right now, that janitor can. When a Korean leisure park and hotel can be set up right in the middle of a forest reservation, common sense tells us that there is something horribly wrong with our system. These persist because everybody is familiar with everybody.

Firing people for incompetence is a sure way of shaping things up. The rules on due process must be improved and fast-tracked to get rid of bad eggs soonest.

  

Efficient Judicial System. Having said all that, these should all be supported by a fast, efficient and cost-effective judicial system. Without this back-up, we will maintain a culture of impunity and "areglo." When rights cannot be protected in a timely manner, investors back-out.

The Piatco-Naia 3 case has dragged on for the past 6 years and Naia 3 is still closed. International airports serve as the gateway to the country and foreign airlines continue to use the old airport. This has earned for the country the tag of having one of the worst airports in the world. Don't they say first impressions last? Tourists can go to Boracay after they arrive but their experiences at the airport will never be forgotten.

It's been almost a year since the Maguindanao massacre and we are still in the arraignment stage. The rules should be revised for a speedy delivery of justice.

Gen. Carlos Garcia stole more than P300 million and his wife admitted so, yet our courts allowed him to keep one-half of the loot. The rules should be revised to obtain real justice.

All of these are better said than done but the fact is, it can be done.

Upon assuming office, President Obama tackled many things all at the same time: had the Healthcare Bill approved, bailed out companies hit by the subprime mortgage problem, mailed money to its citizens to spur spending, signed a new nuclear reduction treaty with Russia and dealt terrorism a blow culminating in the dramatic encounter with Osama Bin Laden.

He has even squeezed in quality time for himself (basketball and golf) and taking his family for vacation. His decision to sign the treaty with Russia amidst criticism earned for him the Nobel Peace Prize.

His current initiatives in the Middle East, asking Israel to give up territories annexed during the 6-day War with Syria in the 60's, and troop withdrawals in Iraq and Afghanistan are all aimed at world peace, stabilizing the price of oil, increasing income and reducing expenditures for America. If the world becomes more peaceful, it will reduce tremendously the US' military's spending and put forward more American business interests abroad. He still has to undo America’s deficit, primarily caused by the engaging in wars overseas after the 9/11, which was still a surplus when Clinton left office.  All these in less than 4 years!

This multi-tasking with positive results and his political savvy have made President Obama a tough person to beat in the next elections.

In the same vein, our government must engage all priorities, all at the same time, with a sense of urgency - population control, job creation and corruption.

The proper determination of family size that is affordable for the pocket is aimed at maximizing the full potential of every Filipino that will be born into this world. This is the essence of human development.

If preventing the conception of a baby is immoral, then what do we call a baby born to live a life like a rat scraping for food? It is not only doubly immoral but bordering on criminal. It's beyond human dignity.

To gain a better appreciation of this idea, all one has to do is to endure the stench and visit a squatters enclave at dusk around 6pm during meal time. In our native bisaya, one can exclaim, "Kinsa man intawo'y gasugo ninyo ug panganak ug daghan!" (Who asked you to have so many children?)

Each anti-RH Bill advocate should undergo an immersion for one month in an informal settler’s home: eat soupy noodles on the floor, brush teeth on the streets using a dipper, take a bath with clothes on and in full view of the neighbors, play bingo at the corner, gossip at each chance while watching over 5 kids, TV from noon until evening, fetch water from any leak, sleep like canned sardines and defecate at makeshift latrines. After one month, they should formulate an action plan without touching on population control.

The current debate has now centered on contraceptives and abortifacients when it shouldn't be.

One doctor on TV said that anything that prevents the sperm from meeting the egg is an abortifacient, ergo, all contraceptives are abortifacients. Congress is busy differentiating between a legal and an illegal contraceptive. Question: if one of them prevents conception, what does the other one do? Common sense is lost in the technical juggernauts of our honorable congressmen.

Nobody has debated much on ligation and castration. Maybe we can reward a couple P50,000 if one of them submits to ligation and/or castration after 2 kids! This program will be a hit! That’s how the illegal organ trade gets going - give up 1 kidney and you get money.

Back to the doctor's definition. A guy wanking against the wall is abortifacient. The adult magazine he was holding is an abortifacient. All adolescents, teenagers and DOMs, for that matter, are abortifacients. What about those who practice withdrawal? Who would care to know but is that abortifacient, too?

The menopausal lady is abortifacient for failing to release an egg. Jun (not his real name), in a hurry to get home for their wedding anniversary, was hit by a bus and died. That bus is an abortifacient.

Is the sperm without the egg, valueless? Must there be penetration for a sperm to have value? It is really quite silly.

We only have one Bible but look at how many denominations claim precedence over the other? The debate is a matter of perception and we are missing the mountain for the molehill.

We give so much value to the welfare of the sperm and the egg that we fail to see the value of the millions of innocent child ALREADY BORN into a life of sickness, poverty and ignorance. If the innocents can only speak, they would have wished they were just wanked against the wall.

Some say condoms encourage the youth to partake of sex. Thank you but they are already encouraged. Call center agents have the highest transfer rate of HIV in Cebu City. Let us be honest with ourselves. It is reality.

We can debate about the RH Bill in the halls of Congress and on TV but the problem of family size should be surveyed down at the grassroots level to whom it matters most.

Let's ask every squatter family if they are comfortable with a big family. Let's ask them further if given the opportunity, would they have availed of aids in controlling the size of their family. To let them off on their own in this aspect is a sin of omission.

Families that are better-off have minimal problems in controlling their family size. It is the masses that begets offspring like crazy and nobody bothered to advised them before that it was simply crazy.

The rich have long been practicing birth spacing and population control for a long time, either through natural methods, ligation and/or contraceptives and it is an integral part of their wealth creation. They are better informed that is why they have better control of their future.

Go into every Rose Pharmacy, Mercury Drugstore, Watsons, most convenience stores and gasoline stations stores and you will see condoms prominently displayed alongside lighters, batteries, lollipops, shave, candies and chocolates.

The well-to-dos control whether they want children or not. Why can't we share this power to the poor? We can't rely on the parents to be the sole teachers of sex education. Look where we are now? TV, the internet and peers - these are modern-age realities.

For a long time, many have resorted to ligation after they have achieved the desired number of children. Ligation, like condom, prevents the fertilization of the egg and yet nobody raised a howl over this practice.

Right now, at the doorsteps of Quiapo Church in Manila, vendors are peddling abortion-inducing medicines and devices unregulated and nobody gives a damn.

Before the RH Bill became a hot topic, nobody branded these persons as terrorists, infidels or Catholics-in-name only. All of a sudden, they are.

We cannot rest on the laurels of EDSA, Jose Rizal, Carlos P. Romulo, Cory Aquino, Manny Pacquiao, Charice Pempengco, Leah Salonga, Bata Reyes, Flash Elorde, Arnel Pineda, Apl.d.Ap, Paeng Nepomuceno, and think of the Filipino race as great.

No amount of temporary entertainment can erase the misery of millions of Filipinos. The truth is, many foreigners still treat us as second class citizens, here and abroad, lumped with citizens from other third world countries.

Worse, we are regarded as household helps and laborers. In several instances in US and British TVs, maids and Filipinas are synonymous. All we can do is to declare them persona non-grata. Even then, the fact remains.

We, us a nation, must collectively make our own mark.

We cannot continue painting the poor people's shanties with murals along major roads or the rooftops when the shanties happen to be under bridges when there are international visitors. It's like the Emperor's New Clothes once again. They say the Filipino is a happy lot but behind the clown's painted smile, is a sad but hopeful face.

Every index, corruption, competitiveness, smuggling, drug trafficking, human trafficking, etc., always ranks the Philippines poorly. We must not endure this self-flagellation and accept it as part of being a Filipinos. In the movie," A Bug's Life," Flick, was able to convince his fellow ants not to accept the destiny of their colony.

Change is always scary but if we are at the bottom, there is nowhere to go but up.

We are about to take a big giant step forward with the RH Bill.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It will take years perhaps decades to see the effects at the national level but for small families and those planning a family, the economic effects will be immediate.

It is not a panacea but it is a vital piece to complete the jigsaw puzzle. Our economic system needs many people acting as consumers to work but we should stop at a point where many becomes disadvantaged.

The shift in paradigm must start at the basic economic unit which is the family.

If we make it our business to teach and help each Filipino how to increase his/her assets and income and reduce his/her liabilities and expenses, then there is hope for the Filipino race. To do otherwise is to abscond from our responsibilities. Jesus came to help the poor. Can't we do the same?

Is it bad to teach them this? Are we endangering our spiritual well-being as one bishop suggested? Pres. Aquino called the challenge of a possible excommunication and it reflects the government's firm resolve to uplift the lives of the poor.

There is no other way in driving home the point as raising a family is the biggest liability and expenditure of all - food, medicines, clothing, shelter, education and recreation.

You go to Colon and Carbon Market in Cebu City and you will be surprised to know that most "tinderas" there are either living-in or are single parents. Most are still under 20 years old, earning around P100-P120 a day. Many have not finished high school but they present doctored photocopies of high school diplomas when they apply.

In contrast, while on tour in Hongkong, I asked our pretty 30-something Chinese tour guide why she has remained single and she said she cannot afford it. Her current one-room pad costs almost the equivalent of P20,000.00. She says she flies to Manila to shop as it is much cheaper. She likes to go to the Mall of Asia.

Growing up, my mama always said to live within our means. She adds, it's not how much you make but how much you save.

She practically lives an RH life long before it came into vogue.