Archive for the ‘Poverty’ Category

Helen Flores
Philippine Star
About 2.9 million Filipino families or 16.3 percent experienced hunger at least once in the past three months due to soaring food prices, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported yesterday.
In its Second Quarter 2008 Social Weather Survey, SWS said the number of Filipino families that experienced “involuntary hunger” rose from 15.7 percent in [...]

Maricel E. Burgonio
Manila Times
STANDARD & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Service warned that state subsidy of food and fuel in countries like the Philippines compounds existing economic difficulties by bloating the government’s budget deficit and widening its trade gap.
The credit-rating company’s warning came ahead of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) decision to raise its key interest [...]

Roy Pelovello
Manila Standard
ANOTHER round of subsidies worth P4 billion from the windfall collection of value added tax on oil and petroleum products will be made available to the poor, President Arroyo said yesterday.
In her opening statement at the meeting of the National Disaster Coordinating Council in Placer town, Masbate, President Arroyo said the new round [...]

Angelo S. Samonte
Manila Times
A total of P2 billion in proceeds from value-added tax (VAT) on oil will subsidize the poor in the country, President Gloria Arroyo announced Tuesday.
The Chief Executive said the new round of assistance will include P1 billion for power subsidy; P1 billion as microfi­nancing for wives of public-transport drivers and conductors; [...]

Paolo Romero
Philippine Star
PLACER, Masbate – President Arroyo announced here yesterday that the government will provide another P4-billion worth of subsidies for the poor that includes financial assistance for electricity bills and cash grants for the elderly.
In her message at the start of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC)-Cabinet meeting here, Mrs. Arroyo also called on [...]

Iris C. Gonzales
Philippine Star
The World Bank is willing to finance the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, a social assistance program of the Department of Social and Welfare and Development (DSWD), which has been widely criticized by some sectors as mere dole-outs.
World Bank country director for the Philippines Bert Hoffman said the Washington-based Fund could [...]

Rio N. Araja and Macon Araneta
Manila Standard
THE head of the National Anti-Poverty Commission said the P2-billion power subsidy and the P5-billion dole for the poor could help pump-prime the economy.
“The poor would have more money to spend. Where would all the money go, but for the purchase of goods,” Secretary Domingo Panganiban told the Standard [...]

by Jose Rodel Clapano
from The Philippine Star
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said yesterday that the “social economy” or the “economy of the poor” in the country is now in “deep s..t.”
Speaking at the Newsmakers Forum at the Holiday Inn Galleria in Ortigas, Salceda said that for the poor Filipino people to cope with the present economic [...]

Helen Flores
Philippine Star
Twenty-eight Cabinet secretaries will go out of their respective offices on June 12 to lead pro-poor programs of the government in commemoration of the 110th anniversary of Philippine independence.
Aside from assisting in the simultaneous flag raising and wreath laying activities, President Arroyo has tasked her Cabinet to lead pro-poor programs in different parts [...]

Katherine Adraneda
Philippine Star
The United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP) yesterday recommended a review of programs to assist the so-called poorest of the poor by the Philippine government in the wake of continuing increases in food prices.
UNWFP-Philippines country director and representative Valerie Guarnieri noted the “centralized” distribution of subsidized sales of the P18.25 National Food Authority [...]