The drafting of the national anti-poverty agenda and poverty reduction plan as part of the administration's Philippine Development Plan 2023–2028 is already in progress, said National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Lead Convenor and Secretary Lope B. Santos III in a briefing on Tuesday, April 11.
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This development plan targets reducing the poverty rate in the country from 18.1 percent to eight to nine percent.
Santos added that the National Economic and Development Authority and other government sectors' frameworks are also anchored in this project.
Meanwhile, the NAPC secretary noted that there had been a significant decrease in the national poverty incidence in 2018 compared to 2015.
"Malaki ang milestone na nagawa ng ating pamahalaan at local government units sa pagbaba ng kahirapan. Alam mo noong 2018 ay napababa na sana natin ang poverty incindence sa 16 percent (The milestone achieved by our government and local government units in reducing poverty is huge. You know that in 2018, we already lowered the poverty incidence to 16 percent)
"Napababa na natin ang poverty incidence to 16 percent noong 2015 [2018] mula sa 23 percent noong 2015 subalit nagka pandemya kaya muling umangat (We have reduced the poverty incidence to 16 percent in 2015 [2018] from 23 percent in 2015, but there was a pandemic so it rose again)," he said.
Santos also stated that one of NAPC's top priorities is the reduction of informal settlers in the country which is why the agency is conducting dialogues with stakeholders regarding this matter.