NAPC bats for ‘zero poverty’ by 2040
“TOGETHER, we will win our fight against poverty,” said National Antipoverty Commission (NAPC) Secretary Noel Felongco said.
Felongco was in Bacolod City on Saturday for the Visayas-wide assessment and training workshop for the Provincial Consultative Study Roll-out.
He echoed the target of President Rodrigo Duterte to the NAPC to realize the target of reducing the country’s poverty incidence from 21.6 percent in 2015 to 14 percent by 2022.
“This percentage is equivalent to about six to eight million Filipinos to be lifted out from the bondage of poverty and to attain zero poverty by 2040,” he said.
“NAPC enjoins to revitalize the partnerships between the national government and the 14 basic sectors such as farmers and landless rural workers, urban poor, indigenous peoples, formal labor and migrant workers, workers in the informal sector, women, children, youth and students, senior citizens, person with disability, victims of disasters and calamities, non-government organizations and cooperatives,” he said.
“The partnership is necessary in order to uplift the lives of the poor by providing quality social services to all stakeholders,” he added.
He explained that samples of their poverty alleviation partnership programs include the establishment and operation of 725 community fish landing centers in collaboration with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
“It aims to spur inclusive growth in coastal areas with high poverty incidence and a large population of registered fisherfolk,” Felongco said.
He is eyeing for the creation of a provincial consultative body which will serve as an avenue for collaboration and coordination in the implementation and monitoring of the anti-poverty programs and services of the government and its partners.*