THE government aims to reduce the poverty rate to a single digit by the end of the term of President Marcos Jr., Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian said yesterday following a recent Social Weather Station (SWS) survey showing that 45 percent or 12.5 million Filipino families consider themselves as poor.
In an interview with radio DzRH, Gatchalian said: “Ang sabi nga ni Presidente Marcos, by the time na matapos siya, dapat single digit na ang kahirapan at middle income na ang ating bansa. Iyan ang direksyon natin (President Marcos has said that by the time his term ends, poverty should already be a single digit and we should already be considered a middle income country. That is our direction).”
In the June 28 to July 1 SWS survey, 45 percent or 12.5 million Filipino families rated themselves as poor (down from 51 percent), while 33 percent (up from 30 percent) said their families are borderline poor and 22 percent (up from 19 percent) said their families are not poor.
Gatchalian said the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which is part of the Cabinet cluster on poverty reduction, is committed to easing poverty and hunger throughout the country.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that poverty in the country stands at 18.1 percent as of 2021.
“Klarong-klaro na nasa tamang direksyon ang ating bansa. Marami pang trabaho na kailangang gawin kasi year one pa lang naman. Pero ang importante is mayroon tayong clear path o ibig sabihin ay may direksyon tayo (It is very clear that our country is in the right direction. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done but it has only been one year. The important thing is that we have a clear path, that means we have a direction),” Gatchalian said.
He said no less than the President himself had laid out the goals of the government and issued corresponding directives during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2022 to strengthen the government’s campaign to address poverty and hunger, starting with the cleansing of the list of beneficiaries of the Pantawid sa Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
He said that the inclusion of at least 1.3 million families of the 4.4 million household beneficiaries of 4Ps is now being violated. After the validation, the households face possible exit from the program if it is found out that they are no longer qualified to avail of the government assistance.
Gatchalian said the 1.3 million have already graduated or are set to graduate as “they can now stand on their own feet.”
Of these figures, 196,539 households were already delisted for various reasons, including natural attrition, waiving of membership, and graduation from the program.
“The DSWD has operationalized the directive of President Bongbong Marcos Jr. to clean the list of our 4Ps beneficiaries through the ongoing review and assessment of household-beneficiaries. This effort will ensure that only the deserving poorest of the poor Filipinos will receive grants from the government,” Gatchalian said.
Aside from the 4Ps, the government has other programs that provides assistance to the poor, among them the Supplemental Feeding Program (SFP) and the programs for victims of violence against women and their children (VAWC), the Centers and Residential Care Facilities (CRCFs), and the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) program.
