QC gains headway in anti-poverty program

Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the other day that the city government is gaining a headway in its fight against poverty, which affects half of the city’s 2.4 million population.

In a meeting at the city hall lobby Wednesday afternoon with representatives of more than 30,000 residents of the government centers in Commonwealth, Batasan and other barangays in the second district, the mayor said the priority of the city government is to address the problem of the urban poor and the delivery of basic services at the grass roots level.

"We are moving ahead of this problem," Belmonte told the cheering residents who would be priority in the distribution of land titles to government lands, which they had been occupying for several decades.

Some 600,000 residents, mostly migrants from various parts of the country, are occupying national government centers in the city. The residents trooped to the city hall to personally thank the mayor for his concern for their plight.

Belmonte also briefed the residents of the local government’s Sikap Buhay program, a collateral-free loan facility that is available to small time entrepreneurs being jointly implemented by the National Livelihood Support Fund (NLSF) and the city government.

Sikap Buhay provides technical training and seminars to interested residents, after which they will be given capital to start a small business.

Earlier this week the mayor also announced the construction of a Super Health Center which will cater the needs of the urban poor, particularly in District 2 where the government centers are located. The center will operate as a mini-hospital to cater to the health needs of the people in the area.