NAPC to help reduce poverty incidence in BARMM

COTABATO CITY – National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Secretary Noel Felongco vowed to help the Bangsamoro Government reduce poverty incidence in the region.

He said NAPC will gather local chief executives, planning officers, and BARMM ministers to orient them on the Commission’s poverty alleviation projects.

NAPC will roll-out a five-year development plan (2019-2023) dubbed the Sambayanihan Serbisyong Sambayanan to deliver basic social services prioritizing the poorest communities. It aims to help attain the administration’s poverty reduction target and contribute to the realization of the AmBisyon Natin 2040.

Sec. Felongco said the national government  seeks “to accelerate the country’s economic engine and reduce overall poverty incidence from 21 percent in 2015 to 14 percent by 2023.”

Communities in the Bangsamoro autonomous region are among the NAPC’s Sambayanihan priority areas.

“We will ensure that all basic needs are accessible in BARMM,” he added.

Derived from the unifying themes of the calls of the basic sectors at the National Anti-Poverty Sectoral Summit in 2016, the ten basic needs of Filipinos are food and land reform, water, shelter, work, health, education, social protection, healthy environment, peace, and participation.

The agency will also prioritize five key issues in the region such as peace and order, increasing inflation rate related to agriculture and fisheries, lack of inter-agency collaboration, inadequate community participation, and climate change.

“Majority of the population in BARMM are farmers and fishermen. If we can improve agriculture and fisheries, we can improve poverty incidence,” Abdullah Cusain, BARMM assistant executive secretary said.

In 2018, BARMM’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) posted 7.2 percent growth rate in which the sectors of agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fishing remained the largest share in the region’s total economic performance.