Siayan, PH’s poorest town, needs more livelihood projects – VP Leni

Keeping in touch with poor communities around the country, Vice President (VP) Leni Robredo went to Siayan, Zamboanga del Norte to give a platform again for private companies to provide assistance to women entrepreneurs who need help.

Robredo visited the livelihood training center of Siayan Pangkabuhayan Federation of Cooperatives (SIAPAFEDCO), where she learned female workers need “more processing equipment and additional capital” for the production of their goods.

The Vice President said her office will look into helping SIAPAFEDCO through its flagship antipoverty program, Angat Buhay.

Siayan, which was considered the country’s poorest municipality from 2003 to 2009, has been covered by Robredo’s poverty alleviation project.

“Initiative such as this are important in helping out women develop skills that will ensure they can be financially independent,” Robredo, an advocate of the poor, said.

SIAPAFEDCO is composed of women entrepreneurs in Siayan who process and sell banana chips, vegetable pickles, peanut butter, and hot chili sauce. They also produce decorative items made out of corn husks.

Robredo’s Angat Buhay links up private companies with communities around the country in need. This program has been eating much of her time since she assumed office in 2016.

Last year, the Office of the Vice President and its partners from the private sector put up a toy library and microfinance facilities for the municipality’s livelihood program.

They also initiated a feeding program for more than 800 children in the 22 communities of Siayan.

On top of these, Robredo and Anton Lim, head of Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation, an Angat Buhay partner, inaugurated just last week a dormitory for boys at the Siayan National High School.

Robredo said students opted to walk more than an hour and make a long trek crossing rivers every day on the way to their school.

“Many of them would drop out because of these difficulties. Hopefully, this dormitory would help improve the school’s dropout rate,” she said.