Poverty

FOR Manuel “Manny” V. Pangilinan, eradicating poverty should be Job No. 1 for every Filipino. But to be successful, more people should help not just in civic projects but also in government programs that invite partnerships with private businesses.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Budget and Management is preparing a budget execution strategy for an additional P21 billion worth of conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to be distributed by the Departments of Social Welfare and Development, Education and Health.

(First of Two Parts) MANILA, Philippines – If the majority of Filipinos are hopeful for a better 2011, it is also clear they want out of the “kulelat” (tailender) position to which the Philippines had been relegated during the Arroyo years. In its 2009 Human Development Index, the UN ranked the Philippines 105 out of…

The quickest way to get the poor out of their condition is to give them more sustained employment. The special employment zones as discussed earlier present a big solution. These zones will be in industry and agriculture that bring in large scale labor using enterprises.

MALACAÑANG on Sunday announced that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was successful in meeting its target to help at least 1 million Filipinos through its conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. “We are very glad that the DSWD has achieved its goal of reaching out to one million beneficiaries for 2010 under its…

CEBU, Philippines – Party-list group Trade Union Congress Party urged the government and the private sector to participate in the House deliberation of the proposed Magna Carta for the Poor.

MANILA, Philippines –  Sen. Edgardo Angara cited yesterday the possible danger on the P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program the Aquino administration will implement for some 2.3 million indigent families.

THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said over the week end that it would prioritize processing allocations to scholarships and hospitalizations from the P70-million worth of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of each member of the House of Representatives. “The DBM is giving priority to the processing if allocations for scholarships and hospitalizations because…

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the government is eyeing to cut the poverty incidence by half before President Benigno Aquino 3rd ends his term. “The official target that we have is the Millennium Development Goals. That’s essentially what we’re following. The government is committed to that, so in a way, that’s how…

MANILA, Philippines – Some 17 million Filipinos still do not have access to safe water while 25 percent of the population does not have “individual type of sanitation facilities,” an administration lawmaker said yesterday.

Are you cursed to be poor for the rest of your life? I was. Did you put a curse of poverty on yourself? Believe it or not, almost all of us did. Can you recognize the not so obvious signs of poverty and the curse in your life and others?

GENEVA—The number of very poor countries has doubled in the last 30 to 40 years, while the number of people living in extreme poverty has also grown two-fold, a UN think-tank warned Thursday.

3M households lack food once in 3 months – SWS Some 3 million families, or 15.9 percent of the total in the Philippines, are experiencing hunger at least once in three months, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed.

Food manufacturer CDO-Foodsphere Inc. has teamed up with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), a non-profit corporate foundation established by prominent businessmen led by PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, for a supplemental feeding program to save indigent children out of malnutrition in a pilot site in the northern part of Metro Manila. Odyssey Foundation…

THE Aquino administration will adopt a five-year poverty reduction masterplan that aims to slash the country’s poverty incidence to 24 percent by 2015, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

Unless the economy grows at 7 percent or higher  annually, it will be hard for P-Noy to bring down the country’s poverty rates to a more manageable level of say, less than 20 percent by the time he leaves Malacañang in 2016. It was very high at 33 percent when the country’s poverty incidence was…

MANILA, Philippines – While fewer Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in the last three months, nearly half of them rated themselves “mahirap” or “poor,” a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

MANILA, Philippines – The head of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) yesterday said the government is unlikely to be able to reduce extreme poverty incidence by half by 2015 although the poverty incidence is not likely to rise.

MANILA, Philippines—In her jumbled English, 13-year-old Stella Mae Santos wrote her wish to the government: “I want to the poor people to have and dress and school requirements and money so that they have for buying foods.”

THE Internet and mobile-related micro-enterprises are offering more hope for escaping poverty in the Philippines and other developing countries, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In a study titled, “Information Economy Report 2010: ICTs, Enterprises and Poverty Alleviation,” the UN body said that on the back of the widening diffusion…

WHILE the Philippines shares with India the world’s top spot in outsourcing and technology, a study by the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (Unctad) reveals the benefits are far from trickling down to the rural poor.

TO RECALL the first part of this topic, the World Bank’s latest report on the country, titled “The Philippines: Fostering More Inclusive Growth,” started its analysis of poverty in our country by asking: “Who are the poor, what are the characteristics of the poorest Filipinos?” The World Bank’s answer: first, the typical poor Filipino belongs…

WASHINGTON DC, United States—Poverty, conflict, and political instability caused some billion people to go hungry this year, many of them children in Africa and Asia, according to the Global Hunger Index report released Monday.

MANILA, Philippines—More than 16,000 people have been purged from the list of almost a million “poorest of the poor” under the government’s conditional cash-transfer program because they are either unqualified or their names were entered twice, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said Monday.

THE Philippines could meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) deadline to halve poverty incidence by 2015 if, in spite of the expected rise in the number of poor families last year (the data still to be released), the country reduces poverty incidence by 2.05 percentage points every year.

POVERTY AMONG Americans is now at a record high. According to the latest report from the US Census Bureau, there were close to 44 million poor Americans last year, the highest recorded in 51 years. Our government has yet to release our own official poverty statistics for 2009, but as of last count in 2006,…

UNITED NATIONS  – Asia has slashed the number of people living in extreme poverty, but leads the world in malnourishment and is struggling to meet ambitious development goals set at the United Nations, a UN report said.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – President Aquino wants the more than 4.6 million poor Filipinos to be relieved from poverty and have better lives by 2015.

MANILA, Philippines – Four out of 10 Filipino children are living in various forms of poverty, other than economic poverty, according to the latest survey on child welfare conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

LONDON, United Kingdom—The effects of hunger could be costing developing countries $450 billion a year, an aid agency warned Tuesday, ahead of a United Nations summit on development.