News Release January 16, 2013 Partylist Representative Teddy Casio today said that in light of the recent

Social Weather Station survey showing more families consider themselves poor, poverty should be the foremost issue for the 2013 senatorial elections. Based on the survey, some 10.9 million households or around one in every two families (54 percent), consider themselves poor, up from the estimated 9.5 million households (47 percent) in August 2012. This is glaring proof that the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the government is a failure because it does not address the basic demand of majority of Filipinos and that low prices and stable jobs with decent wages, said the Makabayan senatorial bet. Dinamihan man ng gobyerno ang dole-out sa mahihirap, at the end of the day our people still do not have jobs that will truly sustain their expensive basic daily needs. This should be a wake-up call for the Aquino administration and aspiring senators to concentrate more on programs that would create jobs and lower prices, the solon added. A recent United Nations report rated the country slow in fighting poverty and regressing in boosting education despite the tens of billions allotted in the CCT program. Since assuming office, the Aquino government has drastically expanded the CCT program which is allocated P44.25 billion for 2013, Casio said. This is a challenge to government and senatorial aspirants to devise comprehensive ways to reduce prices and create jobs in the localities because if not then poverty in the country would just increase, he added. To reduce prices of basic utilities like electricity, water and LPG, Casio is proposing the removal or reduction of the value added tax on the said products. Instead of giving out monthly dole outs via CCT, government should use the money to subsidize farme rs and build common service facilities for MSMEs, Casio said, pointing put that a measly P1.7 billion has been allotted this year for MSME development under the Dept. of Trade and Industry. Reference: Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casio, 09209035683

P-Noy wants faster method to verify poverty stats MANILA, Philippines - No question about poverty statistics, regardless of how embarrassing the figures may be. Malacaang said yesterday that President Aquino is accepting the figure provided by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) regarding the unchanged level of poverty since 2006, but that he only wanted a faster way to check the data. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte clarified to Palace reporters that Aquinos expression of doubt in an interview with reporters in Brunei last Wednesday was not in any way meant to disparage the study conducted by the NSCB. She told a news briefing that what the Chief Executive only meant was perhaps there is another way to get the data while it is still relevant. The NSCB reported that poverty incidence for the first half of 2012 was at 27.9 percent, slightly less than the 28.8 percent recorded in the first half of 2006, and 28.6 percent in the first half of 2009 and 2011. Valte noted that Aquino only wanted figures to be released sooner, kept and analyzed.

Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 What the President expressed was another way to get relevant data, one way where we can do this faster, Valte said. The NSCB report on the 2012 first semester state of poverty in the Philippines showed that a family of five can be considered extremely poor if it is earning P5,458 a month or just enough to put food on the table. When asked whether Aquino was influencing NSCB, Valte replied: Certainly not. In a sit-down coffee with reporters in Brunei where he attended the 22nd high-level meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Aquino could not help but question the poverty data that NEDA chief Arsenio Balisacan made public recently. I have a bit of a doubt since they used the wrong population data, which is the basis for computing per capita income, Aquino said. How then can you properly compare 2009 and 2012? The (NSCB) might feel bad, but these are off -the-cuff remarks that were on top of my mind, he said. Aquino said he never had the chance to study poverty incidence thoroughly, but that 2009 population numbers were questionable and thus could not be compared to the 2012 figures. Somebody said there was really no change whatsoever, and I dont think thats what the statistics said, he said. Aquino chairs the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board. The NSCB and the National Statistics Office (NSO) are attached agencies of NEDA. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda did not dispute that poverty level in the country remained unchanged for the last seven years, but assured the public that things will definitely be better as he described the 2012 statistics as mere historical data. Scrap CCT program Several groups based in Laguna Lake and Manila Bay yesterday called for the scrapping of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program because of its reported failure to substantially reduce, if not mitigate, poverty. In a joint press statement, the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), Anakpawis party-list, Save Laguna Lake Movement and the Koalisyon Kontra Kumbersyon ng Manila Bay (KKK-Manila Bay) said it is high time for Congress to stop funding the anti-poverty measure, which they said is nothing but a long-running multi-billion wastage of taxpayers money and an institutional funding for mendicancy and across-the-nation begging. The groups said at least P20 billion in public funds would be saved with the immediate shelving of what they described as a bogus and unrealistic anti-poverty program. New challenge Sen. Francis Escudero, meanwhile, said yesterday the Aquino administration faces the challenge of further improving the economy so that more Filipinos could feel its impact. The challenge is with the Aquino administration to improve the lives of the people after achieving 6.6 percent economic growth, Escudero said. If our economy goes down, many people will be considered poor, he added. Now, all that needs to be done is let the growth trickle down. According to Escudero, economic growth should be sustained for at least two years before the public can feel its impact.

Truth hurts For his part, Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile, an opposition senatorial candidate, said yesterday that President Aquino should not be afraid to hear the truth about poverty in the country from his own Cabinet member. Enrile said he hoped that Balisacan was not removed from Aquinos delegation to the ASEAN summit in B runei because of his revelation that poverty incidence has remained at almost 30 percent. We should not be afraid of the truth for the truth shall set us free to correct wrong policies and to demolish mass poverty among our people, he said. Lacierda and Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras earlier belied reports that Balisacan was indeed excluded from the delegation to the ASEAN summit.