URBAN POOR SUMMIT. Evangeline Roche Abejo, vice chairman for Visayas of the National Urban Poor Sector Council and focal person of the Koalisyon ng mga Maralita-Cebu Chapter (center), and other urban sector leaders discuss with Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) Assistant Secretary Anthony Gerard Gonzales the Cebu-wide urban poor summit in Talisay City on Jan. 26, 2019. (Photo by John Rey Saavedra)
CEBU CITY -- Under the Duterte administration, the urban poor sector must no longer be a mere recipient but must also be direct proponents of the government’s poverty alleviation programs, an urban poor leader said here Tuesday.
Evangeline Roche Abejo, the National Urban Poor Sector Council’s vice chairman for Visayas and focal person of the Koalisyon ng mga Maralita-Cebu Chapter, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that civil society organizations (CSOs) and people's organizations (POs) now have the opportunity to directly participate in the formulation of anti-poverty plans and programs.
“Kun di mo-participate, di mopakita og pakabana, ang mahitabo maulahi ug ma-left out (If you will not participate, if you will not show interest, what will happen is that you will be left out). But in the Duterte administration, no one should be left out,” Abejo said. “Everyone must be counted.”
Cebu province’s urban poor sector will conduct a multi-sectoral summit in Talisay City on January 26, said Abejo, who is also the incoming National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) focal person in Cebu.
The summit will be attended by different urban poor leaders and focal persons in the province.
In this summit, NAPC Secretary Noel Felongco will present the 10-point anti-poverty agenda of the Duterte administration.
The objective of the gathering is to lay down the set-up of consultative bodies from the provinces, which will also set up consultative bodies from the municipalities and cities, she said.
The members of the provincial consultative bodies will undergo orientation on the manual of operations on how to submit monitoring reports to NAPC.
“First, Attorney Felongco will explain the new concept of proposing projects and programs that will directly benefit the urban poor,” she said. “Unlike before that the poor would just wait for projects from the central office to be downloaded.”
She explained that past presidents would only know the conditions of the urban poor in the field through the NAPC secretary.
“Right now, we will be the one to report and the NAPC Secretary will help us endorse our proposals to the President,” she further explained.
Although Cebu is not part of the priority provinces that need the attention of the President, Abejo said it is one of the areas that have a high incidence of poverty.
The Philippine Statistics Authority 2015 report shows that the whole of Cebu had a poverty incidence of 21.4 percent. (PNA)
