Biz leaders vow to help anti-poverty plan
Efforts to support programs that will address conflict and extreme poverty in parts of the country came up in a recent meeting between leaders of the country’s conglomerates and President Rodrigo Duterte.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III joined the meeting, which lasted for more than three hours and was arranged by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion.
Concepcion brought up the need to help areas experiencing extreme poverty by providing infrastructure such as housing, telecommunication satellites, power and water supply systems, and capacity-building through mentorships and trainings.
Issues like the campaign for tax reforms also came up during the discussion, according to a press statement sent by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship Foundation Inc. (Go Negosyo).
A separate meeting between Secretary Dominguez and the “Kapatid conglomerates” tackled more business and finance issues including tax, budget allocations, investments, and anti-poverty programs.
The top 10 areas of extreme poverty were identified as Sulu, Bukidnon, Compostela Valley, Sultan Kudarat, Siquijor, Southern Leyte, Leyte, Masbate, Catanduanes, and Sorsogon.
“These are the areas of focus for socio-economic development under Go Negosyo’s Kapatid, Angat Lahat program, the first private-public partnership project of this administration,” the statement said. Go Negosyo is working with the Department of Trade and Industry led by Secretary Ramon Lopez and Department of Agriculture led by Sec. Manny Piñol on this initiative.
At the meeting were Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (Ayala Corp.), Teresita Sy-Coson (SM Investments Corp.), George Barcelon (Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry), Erramon Aboitiz (Aboitiz Equity Ventures), Manny Pangilinan (MVP Group of Companies), Doris Magsaysay Ho (Magsaysay Group), Alfred Ty (GT Cap- ital Holdings), former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Rep. Arthur Yap, Tony Tan Caktiong ( Jollibee Food Corp.), Federico Lopez (First Philippine Holdings), Kevin Tan (Megaworld), Enrique Razon (International Container Terminal Services), Lance Gokongwei ( JG Summit), Josephine Gotianun-Yap (Filinvest Corp.), Alice Eduardo (Sta. Elena Corp.), Michael Tan (LT Group), Injap Sia (Double Dragon Properties), Tomas Alcantara (Alson Consolidated Resources), Hans Sy (SM Prime Holdings), Dr. Francisco Duque, Dr. Domingo Yap (Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce), Ginggay Hontiveros, and Merly Cruz (Go Negosyo).
13% The target poverty rate the Duterte administration has set by 2022, from 21.6 percent as of 2016