Arroyo orders close watch on anti-poverty programs

from The Inquirer

By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
Reporter
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines -- To ensure that the gains from the improving economy are trickling down to the poor, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday ordered the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) to closely monitor the implementation of anti-poverty programs.

Arroyo said the NAPC should go to the people and listen to their suggestions on how best to alleviate their plight.

"I am ordering NAPC to take the lead in going to the grassroots and serving as a receptacle for new strategies and ideas to defeat poverty," she said.

Arroyo’s renewed stress on the anti-poverty campaign comes on the heels of talk that former president Joseph Estrada, whom she pardoned on October 5, little more than a month after he was convicted for plunder, might play a key role in the administration's pro-poor programs.

Acknowledging Estrada's appeal to the masses, Palace officials have said they would welcome Estrada's help, but said it was inappropriate at this time to offer him a government.

Arroyo said she wanted the NAPC to conduct public dialogues to determine ways on how best fight poverty and bring the nation closer together.

"Let us reinvigorate our democracy through broad and open nonpartisan public discourse on a national agenda for growth and development," she added.

Arroyo also instructed all government departments to submit to the NAPC a "concrete plan on how to cascade the gains of the economy to marginalized sectors."

The NAPC is composed of representatives from various sectors and works with various government agencies in the implementation of the government's anti-poverty programs, particularly livelihood, through training, microfinance, and feeding programs.