Romualdez vows to push for poverty reduction

MANILA, Philippines — Aspiring speaker Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez yesterday vowed to push for a poverty reduction roadmap in support of President Duterte’s war against poverty.

In a statement, Romualdez said the roadmap must spell out the legislative measures and funding requirements needed to realize Duterte’s vision of reducing poverty incidence by almost half before his term ends in 2022.

“We are winning the war against criminality and terrorism. We are one of the fast-growing economies in Asia. It is time now to focus more on the President’s war against poverty,” Romualdez said.

“The 18th Congress must step up to the plate. Lifting Filipinos out of poverty is the top priority of President Duterte in the next three years and we need everybody’s support for this mission,” he said.

Romualdez, president of Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), noted that the President has succeeded in reducing poverty midterm into office, but his programs and policies “need to be institutionalized to ensure poverty rate is cut down to just 14 percent by 2022.”

“The numbers now are good. All poverty indicators are at all-time low. We just need to stay on course and make sure that all the programs and policies are in place for the next phase of the war against poverty,” he said.

Romualdez cited the latest survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority, which showed the number of poor Filipinos reduced in the first semester of 2018.

According to the National Economic and Development Authority, the reduction was because of improvements in the quality of employment in the past three years since the last poverty survey in 2015, as well as the expansion in government social services.

“Our people are slowly realizing, through direct experience, the benefits of our economic growth. If we can sustain this, the goal of transforming the Philippines into an upper middle-income by 2022 is achievable,” Romualdez said.

To win the war against poverty, he said the 18th Congress must work closely with Cabinet officials and agree to a common roadmap for the two branches of government to work on.?