By Genalyn D. Kabiling
The government has vowed to sustain poverty alleviation efforts after welcoming a new survey that indicated a record-low self-rated poverty among Filipino families.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the Palace is “pleased” with the survey results that demonstrated the government’s anti-poverty projects were “gaining ground.”
“We are pleased to note that Filipino families who consider themselves mahirap or poor continue to decrease to record-low 42 percent in March 2018, as shown by the latest Social Weather Stations survey. The figure is two percent lower than the 44 percent registered in December of last year. The same survey reveals a drop of Filipino families rating their food as mahirap or poor from 32 percent to 29 percent,” Roque said.
“Our poverty-alleviation efforts are thus gaining ground as we continue to assure everyone that no one will be left in the Duterte administration,” he added.
Roque said the government intends to enhance social protection mechanisms, which include quality healthcare and conditional cash transfers through revenues generated by the first package of the comprehensive tax reform program.
The government is also committed to expand regional and countryside development to bring comfortable life to the marginalized and disadvantaged families, according to Roque.
At least 9.8 million Filipino families or 42 percent believe they are poor based on a recent survey released by SWS, lower than the 44 percent or 10 million families in the December 2017 survey.
The same survey also showed the number of food-poor famous reached a record-low 6.7 million or 29 percent.
