All gov’t agencies, offices directed to implement poverty reduction program

MALACAÑANG has directed all government offices and agencies to join in the implementation of the administration’s poverty reduction program.
Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, as authorized by President Rodrigo R. Duterte, issued on March 6 Memorandum Circular No. 59 which directs all government offices, agencies and instrumentalities, including government-owned or -controlled corporations, to support and actively participate in the implementation of the “Sambayanihan: Serbisyong Sambayanan.”
The said program intends to carry out the directive of Mr. Duterte to reduce poverty incidence in the country by 7.6% by year 2022.
The document cites Republic Act (RA) No. 8425, or the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act, which declares that the State shall “adopt an area-based, sectoral and focused intervention to poverty alleviation, wherein every Filipino family will be empowered to meet its minimum basic needs of health, food and nutrition, water and environmental sanitation, income security, shelter and decent housing, peace and order, education and functional literacy, participation in governance, and family care and psycho-social integrity.”
RA 8425 created the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NPAC), “which shall, among others, coordinate with different national and local government agencies and the private sector to assure full implementation of all social reform and poverty alleviation programs.”
The NAPC launched the program in Sept. 7 last year. The memorandum states this is a program “where the frontline support and basic social services of various national government agencies will be delivered directly to our fellow Filipinos, especially those in the poorest communities.”
The memorandum said the government “envisions that by the year 2040, the Philippines shall be a prosperous, predominantly middle class society where no one is poor and those in public service are watching out for the less fortunate, protecting their rights, and helping them out of poverty, instead of taking public funds and keeping it for themselves.”
The memorandum covers also the “caravan and component programs” of the Sambayanihan, “subject to existing laws, rules and issuances, including budgetary policies and regulations.” — A.L. Balinbin