Poverty not reduced during Noy admin – Villar

 MANILA, Philippines - Poverty incidence has not improved during the past five years of the Aquino administration despite efforts to pursue poverty alleviation projects, Sen. Cynthia Villar said.

“My only comment is I am very concerned on poverty. I believe, after all is said and done, we are doing well economically. But is there a reduction of poverty?” Villar remarked during a recent forum at the Senate.

“Definitely, the companies improved, they made good. But in the end, the majority of people remain poor. We should have improved poverty incidence, but we saw it did not,” she said.

Villar made the remark when asked if the government would have been different had her husband, real estate businessman and former senator Manuel Villar Jr. won the presidency against then senator Benigno Aquino III in 2010.

Villar, who chairs the Senate committee on agriculture and food, said there is a need to empower the people from the rural areas, especially those in the agriculture sector.

“Since a majority of the people are in agriculture in the rural areas, I don’t think we can reduce poverty without increasing the income of the rural farmers and fishermen. I would think that is where we failed,” she said.

“Because if we were able to increase the income of rural farmers and fishermen, then poverty incidence will go down since the majority of the poor people are from that sector. I believe that for an agricultural country, in order to reduce poverty, you have to increase the income of rural farmers and fishermen,” she added.