Lack of funds hampers NAPC

Felongco called on the bicameral committee in Congress to increase if not double the agency’s budget

The national agency tasked to lead President Duterte’s objective to reduce poverty to 14 percent by 2022 needed much more than its P245 million budget to produce results.

“We want to double our efforts to achieve this objective but we need a bigger budget to work with,” said National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Secretary Noel Felongco in a meeting with civil society organizations in General Santos City on Saturday.

Felongco called on the bicameral committee in Congress to increase if not double the agency’s budget.

He said that by comparison, the economic zone of Zamboanga City gets an outlay of P300 Million from the City government.

The NAPC is the government’s coordinating council to reduce poverty which affects 21 percent of the country’s population.

Executive Order 59 issued by President Duterte has directed all government agencies and government-owned corporations to support NAPC’s whole-of-government approach in combatting poverty.

Felongco said with more funds, the NAPC can double up efforts in coordinating government efforts in reducing poverty.

“We want to be more visible and more assertive in the regions in pursuing this goal not on a fly-in and fly-out basis but on a sustainable basis,” he said.

Philippine security forces consider poverty as the root cause of insurgency.

In the same forum, Lt. Col. Jake Obligado of the Eastern Mindanao Command said ending local communist insurgency is the top priority of the Duterte administration.

He said poverty is the stimulus to insurgency.

Felongco said only by reducing poverty will the attraction of insurgency made irrelevant and the building of peaceful communities possible.

Felongo said reducing poverty to 14 per cent if not lower by the end of President Duterte’s term is equivalent to lifting 6 million Filipinos from poverty.