Palace: Drop in hunger incidence due to Duterte’s pro-poor programs

MANILA, Philippines — The drop in the hunger incidence among Filipinos was due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s pro-poor programs, Malacañang said Thursday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement after the latest Social Welfare Stations (SWS) survey showed that 9.5 percent, or an estimated 2.3 million families, experienced involuntary hunger from January to March this 2019.

The latest figure was less than 10.5 percent of Filipino families that experienced hunger between October to December 2018.

READ: Philippine hunger rate drops in Q1 2019 — SWS

“We are off to a good start,” Panelo said in a statement, adding that the “figures indicate that the President’s sincere efforts in addressing soaring prices and running a bureaucracy that efficiently delivers basic services to the poor and marginalized are beginning to bear fruit and now being felt by our countrymen.”

“While many Filipino families remain in poverty and continue to experience hunger,” Panelo assured Filipinos that Duterte “has been working tirelessly in improving the socioeconomic status of millions of Filipinos for them to lead a more comfortable, secure and prosperous life.”

“President Duterte’s incomparable political will and decisive leadership resulted in the following pro-poor social amelioration programs, such as free tuition in state colleges and universities, free irrigation for farmers, universal health care for all Filipinos, free medicine for indigent Filipinos, institutionalized free school feeding program for public school children, salary increases of police, firemen, military and jail personnel and teachers, higher pension for seniors and war veterans, among many others,” he said.

He added that “much has been done in the first three years and with a workaholic and compassionate leader at the helm, much more would be accomplished in the remainder of PRRD’s (Duterte’s) term.” /ee