Evasco to oversee 12 agencies in forming anti-poverty policies

President Rodrigo Duterte has assigned Secretary to the Cabinet Leoncio Evasco to oversee 12 national government agencies in coming up with a set of programs to reduce both the incidence and magnitude of poverty.

Duterte's Executive Order No. 1 also consolidated the functions of three Malacañang offices and placed them under Special Assistant to the President, Secretary Christopher "Bong" Go.

Section 1 of the order on "Reengineering the Office of the President Towards Greater Responsiveness to the Attainment of Development Goals" signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on June 30, mandated the following agencies to evaluate existing poverty reduction programs with Evasco's supervision:

• Cooperative Development Authority
• Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council
• National Anti-Poverty Commission
• National Commission on Indigenous Peoples
• National Commission on Muslim Filipinos
• National Food Authority
• National Youth Commission
• Office of the President - Presidential Action Center
• Philippine Commission on Women
• Philippine Coconut Authority
• Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor
• Technical Education Skills Development Authority

"They shall develop specific programs and projects that seek to reduce poverty, improve the lives of the most vulnerable sectors of society; promote social education of the people to allow them to participate in effecting real change by keeping watch of the affairs of government; and listen to people's feedback," the EO read.

"They shall conduct consultations with LGUs for the proper allocation of resources and program implementation and recommend courses of action for the government to adopt to achieve a sustainable system of meeting the needs of the people, while ensuring resiliency for vulnerable communities," it added.

Evasco was Duterte's national campaign manager and the former mayor of Maribojoc town in Bohol.

Duterte during his first Cabinet meeting on June 30 said that he wanted to create clusters of government agencies that have overlapping functions.

Duterte in the Section 2 of his first EO also ordered consolidating the Office and Functions of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President (OSAP), the Office of the Appointments Secretary, and the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) under his longtime executive assistant Go.

Section 2 also created the Office of the President - Events Management Cluster (OP-EMC) to ensure the effective collaboration among the offices involved in managing Duterte's activities.

OP-EMC is composed of the PMS, Presidential Security Group (PSG), Office if the Chief Presidential Protocol, Media Accreditation and Relations Office (MARO), and the Radio-Television Malacañang (RTVM). —NB, GMA News