Regional Summit on poverty opens in Borongan

By NINFA B QUIRANTE, PIA Borongan
September 19, 2011

BORONGAN CITY, Eastern Samar  –  A Regional Poverty Assessment and Development Visioning is opening today in Borongan City, Eastern Samar.

In a fact sheet obtained from Fr. Juderick Calumpiano of Borongan Diocese Social Action Center, it said that the event is a government-church-civil society interface and dialogue workshop on how to overcome poverty in the country especially in the poorest regions.

This is organized by the Catholic Bishops Conference (CBCP)-National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA) and the civil society and the National anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) as convenor for the government together with agriculture, agrarian reform, interior and local government, social welfare and education departments.

It added that regional summits are done in regions critical to poverty, inequality, environment and climate change issues.

Studies, according to the report, revealed that the rural poor are trapped in a vicious cycle of dependence and hopelessness mainly because they do not have access or control of their assets, that they do not enjoy the benefits of land, forest and waters.

It said further that the common thread underlying poverty is graft and corruption and the need to exact accountability from the government and to promote networking and linkaging among stakeholders.

According to the report, this is the right time to re-institute the paradigm that the poor should be the center of development and for the leaders to listen the the voice of the poor, as the Aquino administration profess to reforms in government.

The regional summit aims to clarify, formulate and document the major and immediate concerns of the poorest regions in the country on different issues. It also aims to relate with the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), the 2011 budget and policy pronouncements of President Aquino and congress.