CLARK SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE, Pampanga - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo outlined today her hunger mitigation master plan that would effectively address and resolve the decades-old problem of poverty in the country.
The President detailed her anti-hunger framework in her speech at the closing rites of the two-day Anti-Poverty Summit at the Clark Museum inside the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga.
The summit has for its theme, "Crossing the Threshold of Poverty in the Luzon Urban Beltway."
Among the hunger mitigation measures she presented were: 1) increasing food production, enhancing efficiency of logistics and food delivery; 2) putting more money in poor people's pockets; 3) promoting good nutrition, and 4) managing the population.
To increase food production, the President wanted the productivity programs to expand all over the country. These include livestock, crops, marine regeneration (mangrove and coastal fishery developments), family farm (through Gulayan ng Masa at the backyard) and irrigation to be prioritized by the Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and National Irrigaition Administration (NIA).
In order to put more money to the people's pockets, the President tasked concerned agencies to improve productivity in coconut areas, provide more aggressive micro-financing, maximize employment opportunities in construction and maintenance of farm-to-market roads, irrigation and roadside maintenance.
To promote good nutrition, the President directed the Department of Health (DOH), the National Nutrition Council (NNC) and local government units (LGUs) to conduct social marketing of quality, cheap but nutritious foods, promote breastfeeding, and nutrition education in schools through the food-for-school program.
In managing the population, the President ordered the DOH to coordinate with the different civic and non-government organizations and other concerned religious groups to help the government in the promotion of responsible parenthood.
The President also revealed that the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) assured her that it would not raise its electricity rates nor impose the Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment (CERA) due to the strong peso, bullish stock market and other positive indicators in the economy.
Before her speech, Cabinet Officer for Regional Development 3 (CORD3), Luzon Urban Beltway (LUB) and Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council (SCADC) Chairman Edgardo Pamintuan presented to the President the output of the two-day summit.
In return, the President thanked Pamintuan and National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Lead ConvenorDomingo Panganiban and assured that their proposals and resolutions will definitely help the government address and resolve the poverty problem of the country.
On her way back to Malacanang, the President inspected the ongoing construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway Project. The expressway is one of the important infrastructure projects of the government to improve and speed up the economic activities in Central Luzon.
Once completed, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway will connect the Subic Freeport to Clark Special Economic Zone and booming Tarlac province for the fastest delivery in and out of goods to Central Luzon and neighboring provinces in Regions 1 and 2 and nearby Bulacan and Metro Manila.
Meanwhile, in his speech at the opening of the anti-poverty summit on Thursday, Pamintuan appealed to the more than 400 delegates to come up with "out of the box" strategies to win the war against poverty.
Pamintuan noted that the President is currently implementing infrastructure projects nationwide that will have a great impact on the condition of life of the poor Filipinos.
He said that the LUB is currently coordinating 15 of these high ticket projects.
LUB, one of the five mega-regions created by President Arroyo during her State-of-the Nation-Address last year, is composed of the southern provinces of Central Luzon, the National Capital Region, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) provinces, Marinduque, and Mindoro.
These projects within the LUB corridor include two seaports, two airports, six expressways, four railway systems, and one water project.
But the success of these projects of the President will not be possible without the cooperation of the people, Pamintuan stressed.
On the other hand, Panganiban said that the Arroyo government policies have helped an estimated 5.5 million people in the first five years of the administration's Medium Term Development Plan.
Last year alone, he said, the government has widened the people's access to credit and capital, providing over P76 billion in loans to small entrepreneurs, farmers and fishermen.
"We brought new land under cultivation, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in our rural areas in the process," he said.
Panganiban added that the government has created more employment opportunities in the cities, built more classrooms and trained more people for higher paying jobs in business and industry.
In the next three years, he said the Arroyo administration will continue to direct public resources to the government's highest budget priorities-modern infrastructure and the national anti-poverty program.
This means, he stressed, that "we will keep our full weight behind the drive to bring the country together through the establishment of super regions and the construction of more ports, roads and better communication facilities."
Other speakers on opening day of the summit were Albay Congressman Joey Salceda, who expressed confidence that the anti-poverty programs in the LUB and four other mega regions will not fail; National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Romulo Neri, who discussed the government's national economic strategy; Assistant Secretary Danilo Consumido of the Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council-LUB who spoke on LUB's coordination efforts to push the government's poverty reduction program; Assistant Secretary Dolly de Quiros-Castillo and Alexander Cauguiran of SCADC-LUB.
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