Duterte’s biggest challenge: pluck 6M Filipinos from poverty, says Recto

MANILA,  Philippines— For  Senate  President  Pro Tempore  Ralph Recto,  getting six million Filipinos out of poverty was the “hardest” and “most demanding” challenge President Rodrigo Duterte had laid out in his State of the Nation Address (Sona).

Speaking before the joint session of Congress on Monday, Duterte reported that poverty declined in the country.

“Poverty incidence fell from 27.6 percent in the first half of 2015 to 21 percent in the first half of 2018,” he said.

“The most important number, though, is the six million Filipinos we need to pull out from poverty,” Duterte said. “Kindly help me on this.”

But Recto said, “Of all the challenges the President had laid out, the hardest is the liberation of 6 million of our countrymen from poverty.”

“This is the Six Million Challenge that confronts us all. It is the overarching Priority No. 1,” the senatoradded in a statement Tuesday.

It was was also the “most demanding because it means  that two million Filipinos “must graduate from dehumanizing existence every year if the objective is to uplift them within the next three years.”

“And even if we succeed in the Six-Million Challenge, there will still be about 15 million poor waiting to be liberated at the end of 2022,” he pointed out, apparently referring to Duterte’s remaining years in office.