MANILA, Philippines – Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman on Monday vowed to beef up the department’s livelihood projects following the Social Weather Stations’ survey which pegged families who considered themselves poor to 10.9 million.
In an interview with Radyo Inquirer, she said that officers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) were working to provide livelihood assistance for those in need, factoring in the effects of several disasters in Metro Manila and various provinces during the past year, for how many felt poor this time.
She said that the same people who told the SWS that they considered themselves to be poor also said that they were not going hungry, indicating “that it is an issue on livelihood.”
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman
“Their families are not going hungry but without jobs, these people still feel poor,” she said.
Social workers were exerting efforts to ensure homeless Filipinos are given jobs and a place to live, Soliman said, pegging the number of those forced to live in the streets to be around 4,000.
“But this is just an estimate as they move around,” she said, saying that many of those they have relocated insist on living in the streets just to be near their source of income.