President Benigno Aquino III vetoed the Magna Carta for the Poor which is a measure that mandates the government to immediately provide homes, food, jobs, education and health care for the country’s 25 million poor.
His reason – the government did not have sufficient funds to immediately carry out even one of the five basic needs of the poor.
The five basic needs mentioned are right to food; right to employment and livelihood; right to quality education; right to shelter; and right to basic health services and medicine.
According to the president, social housing alone could reach to P2.320 trillion, which exceeds the P2.006 trillion national budget.
The government has identified the poor as those earning below P7,017 a month for a family of five or below P16,841 per capita a year.
Aquino did not sign the bill, because he does not want to take risks of not fulfilling the content of it and face charges for it.
Meanwhile, authors of the Magna Carta for the Poor expressed their disappointment over Aquino’s action on the bill which intended to give opportunities to the poor and help them improve their conditions.
For the lawmakers, there is no reason to deny these people any kind of help they could get.
Congress approved the bill early February before the start of the campaign period for the May 13 midterm elections.
The president, on the other hand instructed his cabinet to draft a substitute measure, which would be more feasible and practical, that will be given to the incoming 16th Congress for their review.
