A SOCIAL reform agenda with poverty reduction activities are keys to reducing poverty from the current 21 percent to 14 percent by 2022 and sustaining services to the poor.

Noel Felongco, National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) secretary, said the formula to achieve this is embodied in the five-year program dubbed SSS, or the Sambayanihan Serbisyong Sambayanan, covering the period of 2018 to 2022.

Under this program, the government will provide informal settler families (ISFs) and the urban poor with basic services and access to climate-dwelling, livelihood and employment.

It will also develop innovative infrastructure, provide financing mechanisms to the rural poor, strengthen rural-urban agro-economic value chains, secure the health and general well-being of poor communities, enhance food security and implement the Mindanao special development plan.

“The Malasakit Centers, a one-stop medical center established in 10 cities by President Rodrigo Duterte, fits exactly into the system,” Felongco said.

In Region 7, Siquijor and Negros Oriental have a poverty incidence rate of 52.9 percent and 45 percent, respectively.

Cebu City has a poverty incidence of 20.5 percent, as of the 2015 census of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“I am excited to know the result of the PSA poverty incidence survey in 2018, which will be released by PSA on March 21,” Felongco said.