By Junex Doronio
MANILA — Following the Chief Executive’s well-received State of the Nation Address (SONA), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian affirmed that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s vision of Bagong Pilipinas, where hunger is eradicated by 2027, and a single-digit poverty incidence is achieved by the end of his term in 2028, is right on track.
The DSWD chief referred to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report showing that the country’s poverty rate fell to 15.5 percent in 2023 from 18.1 percent in 2021.
“The preliminary data from the PSA showing that the poor population declined to 17.54 million from 19.99 million in 2023 is a good indicator of the effectiveness of the DSWD’s anti-poverty programs,” Gatchalian said.
The PSA defines poverty incidence as the proportion of Filipino families with incomes insufficient to meet their minimum basic food and non-food needs, as estimated by the poverty threshold.
The DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a national poverty reduction strategy and human capital investment program providing conditional cash transfers to poor households for up to seven years to improve health, nutrition, and education.
“There is a misconception that 4Ps is ayuda. On the contrary, it is a development program designed to break intergenerational poverty—poverty passed down to children. Eradicating poverty is a long-term endeavor. President Marcos has directed a whole-of-government, whole-of-nation approach to reduce the poverty incidence to single digits by 2028,” Gatchalian explained.
The 4Ps program, launched in 2008 and institutionalized in 2019 through Republic Act No. 11310 (the 4Ps Act), provides cash grants to 4.4 million households (equivalent to 22 million individuals), ensuring their children receive subsidies to complete elementary and senior high school.
(el Amigo/mnm)
