Poverty

MANILA, Philippines – Our gathering today is called a Summit on Poverty, Inequality and Social Reform. This is not the first time that we have met for such a purpose. One might therefore ask, why another summit?

DAVAO CITY—The reported loopholes in the distribution of  the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program uncovered recently by the Commission on Audit (COA) happened in 2010 and have already been addressed, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said.

MANILA, Philippines – The government is close to achieving its target number of beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer program.

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MANILA, Philippines – A House of Representatives’ panel has endorsed for plenary debate a bill providing additional benefits to single parents.

MANILA, Philippines – The ranks of poor Filipinos have risen by more than three million despite the reported economic growth over the past several years, as the government continues to be influenced by politicians and businessmen with vested interests, according to advisory and research group Stratbase Research Institute.

Businessmen and politicians with vested interests have been blamed for the widespread poverty in the Philippines, which has been left behind by its Asian neighbors in the race to development.

A LAWMAKER allied with President Benigno Aquino III has urged the Palace to dump the P39.8-billion conditional cash transfer program, saying the increase in poverty and hunger only proved that the dole to the poor was a failure.

Majority of Filipinos considered themselves poor, according to the latest Social Weather Stations survey. The survey results, which were first published in a national business newspaper, showed that 52 percent of respondents (estimated 10.4 million households) considered themselves poor, three percent higher than the 49 percent recorded in the June survey.

A third quarter survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) on self-rated poverty and hunger found an increase in number despite the Aquino administation’s flagship anti-poverty program — the conditional cash transfer (CCT), or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

People are our only remaining source of competitive advantage; most of our other resources are gone or are fast going but what we do have in large quantities are people. It stands to reason, therefore, that we should be spending more in terms of investments in human capital. I know I have written about this…

There is an adage that if you want to help the poor you do not give them fish but teach them how to fish. Suddenly this adage has been turned upside down by a new approach to how to alleviate poverty. You give them cash.

MORE than six million young Filipinos are out of school because of the high cost of education, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).

THE rising incidence of hunger in the Philippines reported recently by the Social Weather Stations has put the spotlight on the wisdom of the Aquino administration’s cash handouts to the poor—and whether the dole is helping to pull Filipinos out of poverty.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of Filipino families that experienced hunger grew from about three million households in June to about 4.3 million in September, according to a survey released yesterday by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

Despite the vaunted cash transfer doleouts or the social welfare department’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) the pang of hunger among Filipino households was recorded at its highest since December 2009 with one in five households saying it experienced a day going by with nothing to eat, the results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS)…

HUNGER IS AGAIN ON THE RISE, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in a new report, with sharp increases in Luzon overwhelming declines in the rest of the country.

A visiting Nobel Prize winner in Manila on Tuesday cited the need for developing economies to increase subsidy for the poor, saying economic growth is not enough to lift them out of poverty.

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has signed an agreement with four other government agencies for the implementation of a project that seeks to reduce poverty in the country.

Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) condemned yesterday the lowering of the daily poverty threshold by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) from P52 to P46 per person for the base year of 2009, saying the move shows the Aquino government’s refusal to address the widespread poverty and hunger in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – Over 15 million Filipinos still have no access to electricity, joining roughly 170 million more in the East Asia-Pacific region, according to a recent study by the World Bank and the Australian Agency for International Development.

MANILA, Philippines – Creating more jobs and assisting the country’s poorest sectors will help the Philippine government avert situations similar to the global protests against corporate greed, an official of the United Nations (UN) said yesterday.

Groups supporting armed struggle against the government are barred from joining the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino has returned to the basic sectors the power to nominate their representatives to the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) to “ensure autonomy and responsibility” on their part.

Arguing the case for support to his Party-list’s constituency, Ang Kasangga Rep. Teodorico Haresco said that financial assistance should also be provided for the moderate poor, which according to the World Bank definition, are those living on $2 to $5 per day.

Government should harness the millions of indigent families under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in national environmental programs starting at the barangay level to cope with the growing threat of climate change.

The Aquino government should consider reducing the budget of the Department of Social Welfare’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program and channel its funds to the Philippine Health Corp. (PhilHealth) where it could be used to provide free medical and surgical procedures to its members.

At the sidelines of Pathways to High and Inclusive Growth, a policy discussion on the Philippine Development Plan 2011 to 2016 held last Sept. 24 at the Asian Institute of Management, two other journalists from the province and I had the opportunity to interact with Secretary Joel Rocamora, lead convener of the National Anti Poverty…

SENATORS UNCONVINCED ON EFFICIENCY, IMPLEMENTATION OF DOLEOUTS President Aquino’s P39-billion budget allocation for his conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that is being handled by social services secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman may have been quickly passed by the House of Representatives without as much as a question or a budget slash, but the same budget allocation…

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga ,Philippines — Budget Secretary Florencio Abad reported here yesterday that the Aquino administration would invest P70 billion in the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program until 2015.