NEDA says government pursues poverty-alleviation measures
MANILA – The difficulties faced by farmers from the various regions in bringing their produce to metropolitan areas have been attended to by government. This was one of the reasons why food prices have not gone up despite the community quarantine measures implemented by both the national and local government units.
NEDA Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon, in a press briefing Thursday afternoon said the national government has been clear in its policies that there should be unhampered flow of essentials, including food despite the community quarantine.
“Food inflation was benign and the Special Amelioration Program was implemented to benefit the bottom 70& of the population, including the near-poor. Local government units and other stakeholders provided the necessary food assistance to households,” she said.
Undersecretary Edillon said the DSWD is fast tracking the disbursement of the Spacial Amelioration Program’s second tranche. She added the government will pursue is poverty alleviation programs to prevent people in the vulnerable sectors to slipping back into poverty. Aside from the relief efforts, Undersecretary Edillon said there are programs, activities and projects to address poverty issues including supplementary feeding, immunization and the like.
“Please be assured we are meeting their basic needs,” the NEDA official said.
During the same briefing, World Bank Portfolio Manager for Brunei, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand Achim Fock said they expect at least 200,000 respondents to their survey in a questionnaire at https://phcovidwb.org/Indiv He added the more respondents the better.
Surveys are being made worldwide to check on the impact of COVIC-19 on households. He said the purpose of the high frequency data is for policy makers to understand the concrete picture, say in Philippine households. (Melo M. Acuña)
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