CEBU, Philippines — The National Anti-Poverty Commission has forged 127 memorandums of agreement with the local government units in Visayas and Mindanao to ensure the implementation of the agency’s flagship Sambayanihan Serbisyong Sambayanan anti-poverty program.
NAPC secretary Noel Felongco said that the COVID-19 pandemic has made things difficult, but it did not prevent the implementation of poverty alleviation programs nationwide.
“In fact, 2020 was a busy year for NAPC in ensuring that government services got to the basic sectors during the pandemic,” said Felongco.
He said that NAPC was able to forge a total of 69 MOAs with LGUs in the Visayas and 58 MOAs with LGUs in Mindanao.
In the Visayas, the MOAs established partnerships with the provinces of Bohol, Siquijor and Southern Leyte, as well as with various cities and towns in Negros Occidental, Aklan, Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Leyte, Samar, Biliran, and Southern Leyte.
The overall objective of this endeavor, Felongco said, is to ensure that poverty incidence is brought down to 14 percent by 2022.
NAPC’s mandate is backed by Memorandum Circular No. 59 issued by Executive Secretary Salvador Medaldea in March 2019 that directs all government offices, agencies, instrumentalities and government-controlled corporations to support and actively participate in the implementation of the Sambayanihan program.
Meanwhile, Felongco said that with the rollout of vaccines, the year 2021 offers hope of healing and economic recovery.
“Hence we are looking at the rollout of household monitoring survey in target priority areas in 400 cities, municipalities and in 4,000 barangays across the country,” he said.
To ensure that government services are accessed by the poor sectors that need them most, Felongco said that NAPC also sought to organize one million Kasambayanihan volunteers as grassroots stewards for poverty reduction monitoring.
Felongco said that NAPC also sought to expand this year convergence platforms for “capacity building activities and social enterprise creation” in partnership with at least 200 LGUs nationwide. — JMD (FREEMAN)