PNoy vows to intensify fight against poverty

The Aquino administration will continue the fight against poverty by bringing interventions at the grassroots as well as boosting job-creating sectors, the President told and audience of international development workers and economists on Wednesday. 

 

“The next three years will see continued interventions on the poorest of the poor but also a focus on the vulnerable but emerging sectors of society,” President Benigno S. Aquino III said, addressing over 400 delegates of the Global Development Network annual conference at the Asian Development Bank in Mandaluyong City. 

 

Such interventions, he said, will stem from “prudent public finance policies and honesty in public administration.”

 

The President said his administration aims to continue “efforts to build mass housing on site and not in far-flung areas” as well as “creating durable jobs in industry, tourism and agriculture.”

 

Citing the problem of poverty as “universal,” Aquino said the effective approaches are bespoke solutions. “Each region, each country, each city and town has its own reality—and the solutions we come up with must be tailor-fit to local conditions.  

 

“This means that our solutions may not be the best for your own communities, and we must study their effects and how to maximize positive interventions in a specific and thorough manner,” he added. 

 

On Tuesday, Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras unveiled the economic clusters' updated development plan, with “greater focus” on rural development  as well as "robust areas" for employment and crops that will generate better yields per region. 

 

Speaking before the conference delegates on Wednesday, Aquino noted, “We cannot have a society where a few flourish, and the rest must make do-with crumbs. We must have inclusive growth.”

 

The economy grew at a surprising 7.8 percent in the first quarter, the best in Asia. 

 

But poverty incidence remains stubbornly high at 27.9 percent while unemployment of 7.5 percent is still the highest among Southeast Asian economies, latest government data showed. 

 

At the conference, Philippine Institute of Development Studies president Josef Yap touted government efforts in “addressing rising inequality amid stellar growth,” including the conditional cash transfer program. 

 

Global Development Network president Pierre Jacquet, meanwhile, encouraged development workers and researchers to “move from endless and ineffective recommendations to evidence-based and operational discussions.”

 

The three-day conference, which ends on Friday, gathers delegates the world over to examine global and regional perspectives on inequality, inclusive growth, and social protection and inclusive growth in the context of the post-2015 development agenda.  

 

This is the first time a Southeast Asian Country hosted a Global Development Network conference—a network of research and policy institutes based New Delhi, with offices in Cairo and Washington DC. — VS, GMA News