Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Dev't council vows to focus on programs to fight poverty By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE chair of the Regional Development Council (RDC)-Southern Mindanao said the body is focused on initiating programs aimed at alleviating poverty.
RDC-Southern Mindanao chair Vicente Lao, the concurrent head of the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC), said in Tuesday's edition of the Business Forum at Medispa at SM City Davao, that these programs will not only be implemented in Southern Mindanao, but hopefully in the entire Mindanao, as well.
"When I became the RDC chair, I was saddened when I take a look on the poverty incidence because its number is getting higher. I said if the poverty level increases, it only goes to show that the benefits are going to the big corporations and not to the masa," Lao said.
He added that he already instructed the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) in Southern Mindanao to call the attention of government agencies to implement programs for poverty alleviation.
"I would really like to see poverty level to go down," Lao said.
As the chair of the MinBC, Lao said they will launch and initiate the Honey Production Project which will be implemented regionwide and hopefully, Mindanao-wide.
He said the project would help poor families in the region.
"The project is just one of our measures to address the increasing number of poverty incidence," Lao said, adding that funding institutions like the Growth Equity in Mindanao (GEM) and the Asia Foundation have already shown interest and support to the project.
Earlier, the regional head of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), a national policy making and coordinating body on statistical matters, revealed that poverty incidence in Southern Mindanao has increased between 2003 and 2006.
Estrella Turinga, NSCB head, noted that poverty incidence of families, or the proportion of families with per capita income below the poverty threshold, went up by 2.1 percent from 28.5 percent in 2003 to 30.6 percent in 2006.
"Poverty incidence report comes every three months, the increase or decrease of the incidence depends on the income and expenditures survey of the National Statistics Office," Turingan said.
She added: "the trend in the increase of poverty incidence will likely continue in 2009 considering the dire economic situation we have today."
