THE Office of the President through Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. spearheaded the launch of "Biyaya ng Pagbabago" in Benguet on Saturday, July 7.
Evasco said, during a simple program at Benguet State University in La Trinidad, the program aims to reduce the poverty in the country.
Twelve agencies are under the supervision of Evasco realizing the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 to lessen poverty incidents from 21.6 percent to 14 percent.
Aside from the mechanism to have significant results to solve the problem, Evasco said the Indigenous Peoples' (IPs) rights in the Cordillera region and in other regions should also be considered.
"There are many agencies who are not aware. This is our move from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, making agencies aware of what they can do in the people in the ancestral domain," he added.
Office of Participatory Governance Undersecretary Joselito Libres said a target of six million Filipinos will be alleviated from poverty.
"Generally, the IPs is the impoverished sector. The president made a directive to give adequate focus and attention to IPs where a task force IP was created to focus on the development and ancestral domains," said Libres.
To lessen poverty incidents for IPs, Libres added an initial funding of P50 million was allocated by the Senate while department and agencies were instructed to ensure allocation budgets purposely for IPs.
Libres said in the coming months, the services will be delivered and P50 million will be allocated for livelihood and economic related activities.
On the same day, a ceremonial turn-over of programs as statement of commitments of the different government agencies in the Cordillera region was held.
At least P22 million were awarded to 957 IPs Youth beneficiaries through National Commission on Indigenous People.
Benguet Governor Crescencio Pacalso assured in behalf of the province and the region the coordination of the province in line with the programs of the government.
Biyaya ng Pagbabago moves to give emphasis and to strengthen poverty alleviation programs to fast track services for the most marginalized sectors. The activity roll-out in the region expected the people to collaborate from local government units.
