'Phl can trim poverty incidence to 16.6% by 2016'

MANILA, Philippines - Government economic managers expressed optimism that the administration can bring down the poverty incidence to 16.6 percent by 2016, 10 percentage points lower than the 26.5-percent in 2009.                                                                       

During a briefing on the proposed P1.8-trillion national budget for 2012, the Development Budget Coordinating Committee said a lot of the programmed spending in the budget is targeted at reducing poverty in the country.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga said the government is striving to attain the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of cutting the poverty incidence of 22.6 by 2015, half of the 1991 level of 45.3 percent of the population.                                                                                      

He said this can be attained though job creation, noting that from May 2010 to May 2011, 1.4 million jobs were created.      

The United Nations Development Program reported that extreme poverty in the country went down to 13.5 percent of the population in 2003 from 24.3 percent in 1991.      

Extreme poverty refers to the proportion of the population living below the subsistence threshold.                              

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the administration is taking poverty reduction very seriously and for this reason, the five-year conditional cash transfer (CCT) program must be sustained.                                                                              

 Funding for the program managed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development would rise to P39.4 billion in 2012 from P21 billion this year.                                          

Under the program, poor families will receive cash grants from the government provided that parents send their children to school, have infants immunized from diseases, and themselves regularly visit community health centers. 

“The CCT is a five-year program so it is really important for us to maintain (this) five-year period, to already make your investments in quality and sustainable jobs,” Abad said.   

While the country might attain the goal of poverty reduction, Abad said it is lagging behind in the goals of providing universal primary education, and reducing maternal and child mortality.                                                                                      

“The past few years we have seen a reversal in those three areas,” he said.