GMA appoints De Castro as ‘alternate’ NAPC chair

President Arroyo designated yesterday Vice President Noli de Castro as her "alternate" in chairing the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), which functions as the official overseer of the government’s pro-poor programs and projects.

The President said De Castro, as the country’s second highest elected official, "will not just be Vice President, he is also deputy President."

"As such, he will help me not only to hold meetings of the NAPC, but also to exercise supervision over the departments that are part of NAPC insofar as their programs are concerned," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo announced the designation of De Castro as her "alternate" NAPC chairman during the commission’s 14th en banc meeting at the Palace yesterday. The NAPC was created under Republic Act 8425, which she authored when she was still a senator.

The President’s advisers originally considered naming De Castro as NAPC chairman, which has full Cabinet rank.

But De Castro himself shot down the Palace’s trial balloon, insisting he would rather be Mrs. Arroyo’s secretary of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

When De Castro invoked this pre-campaign agreement with Mrs. Arroyo to appoint him to this Cabinet post, DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman offered her resignation, which takes effect on Oct. 30.

The President appointed De Castro as NAPC’s alternate chairman during a brief program, commemorating the commission’s 6th founding anniversary, held at the Palace after the en banc meeting.

During the program, NAPC’s lead convenor Veronica Villavicencio assisted Mrs. Arroyo in giving Soliman the Most Outstanding NAPC National Government Agency award.

The award acknowledged the DSWD for its efficient and effective partnership with the NAPC’s Basic Sectors unit in the successful implementation of innovative anti-poverty programs and projects that addressed the needs of the marginalized sectors of society.

Almost all Cabinet members also belong to the NAPC Council, which monitors the implementation of the Arroyo administration’s Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan or Kalahi programs and projects.

In its accomplishment report presented to Mrs. Arroyo yesterday, the NAPC Council cited that approximately P826.8 million worth of anti-poverty programs and services have been implemented in 696 poor communities at 279 cities and municipalities nationwide.

The President, with her fresh six-year mandate, has vowed to reduce the incidence of poverty in the country. More than 40 percent of 84 million Filipinos currently live below the poverty line.