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Friday, March 29, 2024

Romualdez: PDP 2023-2028 key to PH poverty reduction

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The effective implementation of the latest five-year economic development plan crafted by the administration is the key to poverty reduction so long as it is backed by legislation that will smoothen its implementation, Speaker Martin Romualdez said.

Under the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, the government aims to make the Philippines an upper-middle-income country by 2025 and to bring down the poverty rate to a single-digit level—9 percent—by the time the administration’s term ends in 2028.

“The nation is on the road to full economic recovery,” Romualdez told the Manila Standard in an interview.

He said the plan, which will detail “actionable strategies” to develop the domestic market, will be matched with concerted government effort through President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s persuasive pitch for the Philippines as an ideal investment destination.

“Judging from interests shown by global businessmen in our international roadshow with the President, the Philippines may soon become the favorite investment destination in Asia. We, in Congress, are committed to bring this goal to reality,” Romualdez said.

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“We are on the first stage to full economic recovery and we are marching in the right direction. As more investments come in, we create additional income for the government and more jobs for Filipinos to reduce poverty,” he added.

He said the Marcos administration has crafted an “Agenda for Prosperity,” which has as its core mission the country’s economic transformation toward inclusivity and sustainability.

“Congress is one with the President in this mission,” the Speaker said.

The administration’s economic development objectives are spelled out in the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework and its eight-point socioeconomic plan, which the House of Representatives adopted through Concurrent Resolution 2 shortly after the 19th Congress convened in July, Romualdez said.

He added that for the first time, the country has a clear 6-year agenda with clearly defined goals.

“To achieve the PDP plan, I urge businessmen and the public in general to stay the course with us, and share the benefits of progress and development. The best is yet to come,” Romualdez said.

The NEDA said this “is a plan for deep economic and social transformation to reinvigorate job creation and accelerate poverty reduction by steering the economy back on a high-growth path. This

growth must be inclusive, building an environment that provides equal opportunities to all Filipinos, and equipping them with skills to participate fully in an innovative and globally competitive economy.”

“Through the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028, we will ensure inclusive growth that creates more and better, green, or resilient jobs to enable Filipinos to improve their quality of life.

Inclusive growth across the archipelago will be our vehicle for reducing poverty incidence from 18 percent of the population in 2021 to a single-digit level by 2028,” NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

“An economy is only as dynamic as its people. As global and domestic headwinds persist and keep commodity prices elevated, protecting the purchasing power of Filipinos and ensuring food security remain at the top of the government’s priorities. To ensure that the Philippines reaps the demographic dividend, we will prioritize policies to develop our human capital stock further, improve worker productivity, and promote measures for the efficient movement of people by reducing transport costs,” Balisacan added.

Romualdez said the roadmap is needed for the effective implementation of projects designed to hasten the country’s development that is focused on poverty reduction through the existing strong cooperation between the executive and legislative branches.

“This will make this plan doable and achievable. With the right policies that will continue to implement President Marcos’s prosperity roadmap, with the existing close cooperation between the executive and legislative branches, we can build on our stellar economic performance,” Romualdez said.

The Speaker maintained that the House is doing its best to hasten the approval of several measures, particularly the bills the executive and legislative branches had agreed on in October during the meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

He said these proposals are likewise among those enumerated by President Marcos in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.

“These measures are components of the President’s Agenda for Prosperity, which we fully support,” he said.

Among the pending urgent bills are as follows: enabling law for the natural gas industry, amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension Act, National Land Use Act, National Defense Act, National Government Rightsizing Program Bill, Budget Modernization Bill, Department of Water Resources Bill, proposed law establishing Negros Island Region, Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers, the E-Governance/Government Act, and a proposal to establish regional specialty hospitals.

Romualdez said the House would work with the Senate for the expeditious enactment of various bills the larger chamber had approved on third and final reading before Congress started its Christmas recess last month, including the Internet Transactions/E-Commerce Bill.

“The enactment of these proposed pieces of legislation will further enhance our economic performance,” he said.

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