PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday said he wants to further reduce poverty incidence and improve the situation of the poverty-stricken Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and other areas affected by armed conflict in the country.
Speaking at a forum with officials of the ARMM, Duterte also expressed his appeal to lawmakers to fast-track the constitutional shift to federalism to give opportunities to the Moro people.
“I want the incidence of hunger stopped,” Duterte said as he reminded Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo to step up assistance to Mindanao.
The Philippine Statistics Authority earlier announced that the country’s poverty incidence dropped to 21.6 percent of the population in 2015 from 25.2 percent in 2012 and 26.3 percent in 2009.
The National Economic and Development Authority said this meant there were 1.8 million less poor Filipinos last year, compared to 2012. This also put the Duterte administration’s goal to reduce poverty rate to 17 percent by 2022 on track.
The agency adds that the decline in poverty became more pronounced in recent years. Data showed there were about 1.4 million less poor Filipinos in 2015 than in 2009.
Among families, poverty incidence also fell to a record-low of 16.5 percent in 2015 from 19.7 percent in 2012 and 21 percent in 2006.
In the same speech, Duterte also said federalism should be passed immediately to address the development needs in many areas and reiterated an earlier pronouncement that he would be resigning and give way to a new President.
Recently, members of the House of Representatives’ committee on constitutional amendments approved yesterday the plan to create a constituent assembly or Con-Ass as the mode of amending the 1987 Constitution and shifting to a federal system of government.During the hearing, it was also agreed that a technical working group would be created and tasked to incorporate into one all of the pending resolutions for Con-Ass, including those authored by Reps. Albee Benitez of Negros Occidental and Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte.