President’s anti-poverty agenda earns praises
President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. | PHOTO: Presidential Communications Office
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s agenda — to use social programs to uplift Filipino families from poverty than leave them dependent on perpetual dole-outs — has earned the praise from no less than a former presidential rival, Panfio Lacson.
Lacson, also a former senator, lauded Marcos’ program to use social programs to help Filipino families get out of poverty, saying it is better than making them dependent on dole-outs.
Lacson’s remark came after Marcos made it clear in his New Year’s message that assistance programs such as cash subsidy and emergency employment aid are not just about keeping poor Filipinos dependent.
“Our social programs provide welfare armor to the vulnerable but they also provide the means to overcome the very state that they find themselves in,” Marcos said in his New Year’s message posted on Facebook.
“Thus, most ayudas are not a type of permanent welfare because we do not promote a life of dependency. Kaya nga ang pangunahin at tamang konsepto ay pantawid hindi palagian,” he said.
(That’s why the primary and correct concept is temporary, not perpetual.)
In response, Lacson agreed with the President’s remarks, adding that these initiatives must be reshaped into providing sustainable livelihood or job opportunities instead.
“Isang kasalu-saludo na pahayag ng isang pangulo ng bansa na matagal na dapat naging polisya para na pagbibigay ng ayuda sa mga kapus-palad na Pilipino,” Lacson posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
(A commendable statement from a president of the country that should have long been a policy for providing assistance to the less fortunate Filipinos.)
On Facebook, Lacson also shared his previous statement on the matter of social programs which were aligned with Marcos’ agenda for social programs.
Lacson said the country’s social programs must bear “an overarching objective to drive our people back to work, not subsist on dole-outs all their lives.”
This was in agreement with Marcos, who explained in his New Year’s message that effective aid is not about keeping Filipinos stuck in poverty, but instead about helping them break free from such hardship.
“Ang epektibong ayuda ay hindi binuburo ang tao sa kahirapan [Effective assistance does not condemn people to poverty.]. The objective is to graduate from poverty,” President Marcos said.
The President also assured the public that the government’s free college program and other scholarship projects will continue this year.
Livelihood grants and product incubation assistance will also serve as government equity to skilled and talented Filipinos to help attain their dreams.
Marcos also promised to continue to give support to farmers, from seedlings to fertilizers to fuel “because their sweat alone should not nurture the crops they grow in feeding the nation.”
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