DSWD execs say programs better than doleouts
By Vincent Cabreza
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 02:44:00 07/24/2008
BAGUIO CITY – Poverty alleviation programs designed by Cabinet officers-turned-critics of President Macapagal-Arroyo have been so successful that these have helped poor communities ride out the world commodity crisis, officials said here on Tuesday.
Stung by criticisms that government has been solving poverty through doleouts, Department of Social Welfare and Development officials cited the Ifugao towns of Tinoc and Asipulo that have survived the crisis because of the government’s Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan (Kalahi) program.
This program allows 106 of the country’s poorest villages to prioritize what services they require from government to pull them out of poverty.
Kalahi compels government agencies to fuse their resources in fulfilling community development projects, which are all identified by their beneficiaries.
Kalahi was designed by former Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman and Secretary Teresita Deles, former convenor of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, who were among the 10 Cabinet officials who denounced Ms Arroyo in 2006.
Kalahi projects chosen by barangays of Tinoc and Asipulo were responsible for opening trade routes to impoverished and neglected villages there, according to Uberto Gregorio, a consultant of the Kalahi project here.
Tinoc Mayor Lopez Pugung said the new roads allowed farmers to finally trade vegetables in markets of Baguio and Bambang in Nueva Vizcaya.
“These are not doleouts,” Gregorio said.
Because of a relative improvement in their condition, the communities are now asking Ms Arroyo to grant clemency to 16 Tinoc residents, who were convicted of trading in marijuana, Gregorio said.
“They were not rapists. They were not terrorists. They were caught selling marijuana ... [but these 16 young boys] did this because of poverty,” he said.
Janet Armas, Kalahi Cordillera project manager, said there has been a substantial drop in marijuana production in areas covered by Kalahi because of better life prospects there.
But she said the projects selected by poor communities have social consequences. The destruction of Tinoc’s mossy forests, for example, had been attributed to new roads, she said.
She said the communities there are mobilizing advocacy groups to stop forest destruction. They have also enacted local laws that delineate appropriate areas for expanding farms.
The Kalahi projects in Asipulo and Tinoc are underwritten by a Japanese grant intended for a social inclusion project, said Edgar Pato, national coordinator of the DSWD social development unit.
Asipulo Mayor Armando Dumilod said the strategy has been so successful that the town adopted it into an ordinance. He said the town has created an office that facilitates community-driven projects, and has earmarked 70 percent of its annual development fund for fulfilling them.
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