THE Office of the President yesterday said it has helped 622,000 families under its flagship anti-poverty program “Angat Buhay” in the five-and-a-half years of Vice President Leni Robredo’s term.
The OVP’s year-end report said the families are from 223 cities and municipalities reached through the help of 372 organizations, using more than P520 million in funding from various sources, mostly donations from the private sector.
The figures are as of December 2021, covering Angat Buhay’s nearly six years of extending assistance to marginalized families by bringing together the public and private sector to work on key advocacy areas — food security and nutrition, universal health care, public education, rural development, housing and resettlement, and youth and women empowerment. The program also covered disaster relief and rehabilitation and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The OVP said Robredo’s vision in helping alleviate the lives of Filipino families through Angat Buhay “mirrors her vision for the country in her bid for the presidency in the coming May 2022 elections.”
“Meron na tayong vision na kapag tayong binigyan ng pagkakataon, ito ‘yung Pilipinas na inaasahan natin: na ‘yung mga naiiwan ay inaakay, ‘yung mga nadadapa, ibinibitbit. ‘Yung mga blessed ay sini-share yung blessing sa iba (We already have a vision if given the chance, this is the Philippines that we envision: those left behind will be assisted, those who fall are carried. The blessed will share their blessings to others),” Robredo said.
Since 2016, the OVP said, P146.83 million in donations from the private sector and P85.25 million pesos in relief assistance were provided to those in calamity areas such as in the Taal explosion, those affected by Typhoon Nina in 2016, and residents of areas hit by typhoon “Odette.”
Robredo has been leading the OVP’s pandemic response through projects like the Swab Cab which tested 9,757 people in communities with high transmission rates; the Vaccine Express which mobilized front-liners to help local government units in their vaccination programs; and the Bayanihan E-Konsulta which helped ease congestion in hospitals through telemedicine. The office also funded 35,656 extraction and detection kits for help in identifying COVID-19 positive individuals.
The pandemic response also addressed the loss of jobs and the challenge of remote learning. The OVP’s Community Mart which helped 41 tricycle drivers and 248 vendors in Pasig and Quezon City, Sikap.Ph which eased job hunting for those displaced by the pandemic, and the provision of gadgets for schoolchildren and the establishment of Community Learning Hubs are some examples of these projects.
A total of P82.14 million have been mobilized for health projects in 124 localities, such as a mental health facility in San Remigio, Cebu, which was also given x-ray machines and medicines with the help of Solanaland Foundation and ANCOP Foundation USA.
There were 44 projects worth P39.49 million that were initiated to address malnutrition. In Lambunao, Iloilo, 800 children benefited from the feeding program conducted with the Negrense Volunteers for Change Foundation, Inc.
The OVP was also instrumental in the construction of 81 classrooms and five dormitories worth P122.96 million to help students in places like Siayan, Zamboanga del Norte where the dormitory was constructed in partnership with the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation.
By staying in the dormitories, students no longer had to walk a long distance every day to get to their schools. Angat Buhay also provided scholarships and skills training to more than 120 Filipino youth.
The program was also able to reach 138 women entrepreneurs all over the country, where they were given access to livelihood opportunities, including startup capital and mentoring from experts, through the Angat Buhay Workshop for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs.
