Malacanang defends anti-poverty efforts, says CCT's impact starting to be felt

The Palace defended its anti-poverty program saying that although there is still poverty in the country, the number of poor people continue to decline as a result of government social support efforts.

Opposition party Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) has scored the administration for its failure to create a trickle-down effect on poor Filipinos amid the economic growth that the country has been experiencing.

Citing the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey, the NPC said there are around 11.2 million families remained poor in the last quarter of 2015, while some 7.4 million Filipinos rated themselves food-poor.

As a response, Usec. Manolo Quezon of the PCDSPO said: "Well, I think ang simpleng sagot lang dito is you can look at the glass as half-empty or half-full. Lahat tayo umaamin na mayroong kahirapan sa ating bayan."

"The question is tuloy-tuloy ba ang pag-angat ng mga kababayan natin?  We’ve been able to show that 4.4 million households are benefiting from CCT and almost 1.55 million of them have been lifted out of poverty, and that’s just a preliminary estimate."

Quezon cited the vicinity of the UP Town Center, which he said, is now part of a growing economy with so many restaurants.

He said that if the people view the situation as half-full, it will encourage to dream even higher and work even harder to do even more, as always mentioned by the President.

Some social observers are even saying that it would be a wrong move if the CCT is discontinued, he said adding the issue must be discussed thoroughly.  (PCOO News Release)