OUR COVER STORY
A MAN’S
BOLD PLAN
Lifting Filipinos out of poverty
IT MAY sound like
reaching for the stars, but
one visionary believes
he’s found a way to rid
Filipinos of poverty.
Only
when you
know the
root cause of
poverty can
you devise
a way to
eradicate
it.
www.kalatas.com.au
Sydney-based economist, IT specialist
and politically bent Victor Esguerra is so
passionate about his conviction that he’s
moving back to the Philippines to make his
vision work.
In his bold and ambitious plan, Esguerra
has put together a set of principles and
objectives to achieve his end.
“The objectives are simple and
focused,” he said: “Eradicate poverty and
bring dignity back to the people, expunge
corruption at all levels, and stop pollution.”
In a briefing to the Filipino press in
Sydney on Friday, June 16, Esguerra said
that to make his plan to end poverty in the
Philippines he would form a political party
and win government.
“It will be a government that would
fund loans to entrepreneurs, just like banks
and lending institutions but at no interest,”
he said.
“This would help put more people into
jobs and provide more purchasing power
to keep businesses and industry growing.”
Will he run for election?
“No. Definitely no,” Esguerra says. “That
is not in my plan.”
Responses to a quick survey of local
political pundits in the Filipino community
showed overwhelming scepticism over
Esguerra’s blueprint.
“I like his vision, but doubt his success,”
one observer said.
“Winning government with a
new political party is already next to
impossible.”
“The devil is in the detail. It won’t work,
but I wish him well.”
Esguerra stands his ground, however.
Using his IT background, Esguerra
said developed money flow diagrams that
helped in the analyses of just exactly how
money worked in a normal business cycle.
He said he was able to work out what it
was that “really caused impoverishment”,
the root cause of poverty.
“Only when you know the root cause of
poverty can you devise a way to eradicate
it,” Esguerra said.
“To explain the root cause of
poverty would take me at least
three chapters of a book, which obviously I
cannot do in this publication.
“Suffice to say that it has to do with
two things: Firstly, the economic system
we are running (in the Philippines) today is
dependent on continuous growth of GDP
“Secondly, expansion of the economy
(in the Philippines) is driven by the
expansion of credit.
The top economists in government
will say that credit is good because it is
the driver of the economy, according to
Esguerra.
“Well, actually, this is not correct,”
he said. “This is where I differ from those
who follow the principles of Harvard
economists.
“There is a way that government can
expand the economy without going
into debt. There is a way that the
country (Philippines) can grow
its economy without any
foreign investments.
“I have discussed
this with a number
of economists and
although they agree
with my analysis, they
do not believe that we
can do anything about
it – because the current
mainstream economic
principles and economic
gurus are simply too
entrenched.”
Esguerra says he believes
that he can.
He was only aged seven in
the Philippines when the young
Esguerra became aware about
poverty in the country, and he asked
his father why so many
people were poor.
And it
became an
obsession
to him to
find a
way
out
of
poverty for Filipinos.
Esguerra’s family arrived in Australia
when Victor was 10 years of age with that
obsession, and it never never left him.
Over he next 50 years, Esguerra earned
a bachelor of science degree, a graduate
diploma in computer science, a bachelors
of arts degree in economic history and
political sociology, and he read more than
400 books on economics and politics.
All the time focusing on his obsession
to find a way to rid Filipinos of poverty.
At the end of this year, Esguerra packs
up for his moment of truth in the land of his
birth.
To meet his destiny. n
AK NewsMagazine, Vol 7 No 10 |
JULY 2017
05