The face-to-face meeting of Leyte Provincial Governor, Dominic Petilla, and all of the province’s 40 municipal mayors, with 26 heads/representatives of national line agencies was a big success in meeting the objective of “Salubungan” of the Accelerated and Sustainable Anti – Poverty Program (ASAPP) of the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster of national government agencies.
With the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as convenor for the event, held last Friday, April 10, 2015, the local chief executives were able to identify the lead enterprises that have capacity to employ. On the other hand, the line agencies presented their respective poverty – related programs that could be harmonized and synchronized for ASAPP implementation.
Governor Petilla, for his part, talked about the provincial government’s interventions specifically after super typhoon Yolanda hit the region. He said that “after Yolanda, we talked about recovery, rehabilitation, trauma, healing, but one thing we have to fight is poverty caused by Yolanda. “
The official reported that the province’s major industries are fishing, coconut and rice production. He said that prior to the disaster, Leyte ranked as the 4th biggest producer of rice and the second for coconut, adding that coconut farmers belong to the poorest sector even before Yolanda.
Petilla, however, narrated that the province received some 63, 000 sacks of certified rice seeds from Europe on December of 2013 and that now, the production of rice has been fully recovered. He also told that 6 M coconut trees were damaged by Yolanda and that with the help of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), the problem will eventually be answered.
Meanwhile, DSWD Assistant Secretary for Promotive Programs, Camilo Gudmalin, cited that Region Eight has the highest poverty incidence based on survey of the Philippine Statistical Authority. He emphasized the reason for the poverty reduction campaign as well as the promise of the Aquino administration that, “ in our march to progress, nobody should be left behind in development.”
The DSWD official said that as of 2012, 10 m people were seeking jobs and out of this number, 7 m are underemployed and 3 m unemployed. “Still, we will never bring people out of poverty with this situation, “ he added.
For 2015, the DSWD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) is targeting some 90, 078 beneficiaries in Leyte for a total funding of Php 547, 699, 392.00. Gudmalin also reported other anti-poverty programs such as the KALAHI CIDSS, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and Social Pension which will contribute to the ASAPP framework to reduce poverty.
As a result of the workshop that took place in this event, the municipalities came up with varied plans of what enterprises to undertake or expand with ASAPP – Kananga, eco-tourism and agriculture; Tunga, carabao chicharon; San Isidro, Calubian, and Tabango, port development; Burauen, water re-filling, hot spring development, and electricity expansion Julita, soft broom and hollow block making; and Dulag, tourism, and peanut production and processing, among others.#
