Just where our budget goes?

It is very unfortunate that the World Food Organization in the Philippines has recently highlighted the real scenario among Filipino households as to where our budget goes. This is timely in the light of many rising prices, which includes among others, education cost, housing, rents, electricity, water utilities, medicines, food prices and many others. It is commonly observed that among Filipinos, we prioritize education and food as our top budget eater while we seldom give priorities to health and physical rehabilitation whenever sickness happens. Our budget normally goes to education and the provision of food on the table, and this is the very reason why many government workers and even to some extend, private sector workers are buried in loans and many other financial risks. Actually, on the average, government employees has to borrow money/funds from loan sharks or from family and associates to finance education and food but not so much on health and maintenance medications. On average too, a retiree from the government service ends up spending their retirement on medications and medical expenses rather than on precious individual investments that benefits their family and immediate future.

This is so because on normal situation, an average Filipino family will rather spend their funds on education which costs constantly rises. Unfortunately too, even state-run colleges and universities have increased their tuition and miscellaneous fees which is not helping the poor students from poor communities. Even in the basic education sectors, which are supposed to be free, entails costs that usually covers projects and special events like festivities that encourages pupil’s and student’s development. In most cases too, those who fail in state-run colleges’ and universities’ admission tests end up enrolling in privately run universities that are usually very expensive. An average government worker who has a child studying in a private university in Cebu City will have to spend on an average, Php 4,500 a month excluding tuition costs and books. This amount is excludes incidental expenses like laundry, personal effects and fare from school to lodging houses. With this, the government worker has no option but to borrow from loan sharks that have steep interest rates, thus making them exposed to credit dependency. Credit dependency happens whenever the budget of the household solely or heavily relies on borrowings from outside sources just to keep by everyday.

One thing that bothers me the most is in the aspect of managing our retirement benefits. In most cases, even a quick review of the uses of retirement funds among retirees from almost all government agencies, goes to medications and hospitalizations. This is so because in the Philippines, health insurance is not as widely availed among government workers. We have Philippine Health Insurance (PhilHealth) but this is only on the immediate per need basis, and not so much about allocating necessary budget for future use, like in anticipation of the retirees’ acquired and work related sickness like diabetes, stroke, heart by-pass surgeries, cancer and others. As government employees, we do not concern about our future perhaps because we almost always focuses on the present needs that are not sufficiently met by our salaries and other perks. Even those holding managerial positions in government agencies, the need for future budgets allocated for health and hospitalization is not at hand.

Our investments really are not in real estate or on real properties alone. We have to invest on our health and our own hospitalizations expenses. It is to be understood that as government employees, we have to also look into the welfare of our physical health even beyond our present employment. We hold our physical bodies as we are dependent on it. Simply put, our need for future medical expenses rests on our ability to save enough funds for its intended use in the future. We have to enjoy our retirement funds to be with our grandchildren and friends and not deplete it on medications and hospitalizations. This, unfortunately where our budget goes.