THE economic reforms undertaken by the provincial government of Zamboanga Sibugay and national line agencies helped the province fight poverty.

This was the pronouncement of Zamboanga Sibugay Governor Wilter Yap Palma after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced that the province is no longer among the Top 20 poorest provinces in the country.

Based on the 2015 poverty incidence survey, only 31.7 percent (or 68,638 families) in Zamboanga Sibugay were living below the poverty line.

The province jumped to 35th place from 19th on the list of poorest provinces.

Zamboanga Sibugay, which consists of 16 towns with 389 villages, has a population of 633,129 as of the 2015 census.

Palma said economic growth and community-based reforms that the provincial government has initiated translated to employment generation and social protection particularly for the marginalized community. (Bong Garcia/SunStar Philippines)