Poverty incidence drops

To all-time low 14.8%

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Aug 31 (PIA)—From a pandemic period of 19.1 percent, poverty incidence in Bohol eased to its lowest ever-recorded in the most recent years, shared Bohol Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado, to the resounding appreciative applause of Boholanos inside the Bohol Cultural Center, August 30.

While bringing down poverty incidence has always been a preoccupation of administrations, the governor makes this a highlight in his second State of the Province Address (SOPA) during the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Special Session attended by provincial and national government officials including sectors of the society.

“The focus has been sustained through multiple governors. Our previous lowest level of poverty incidence among families was in 2018 at 15.1%,” the reinstated governor presented the data as a matter of fact, for comparison.

The lowered poverty incidence however easily bounced back as poverty, after the months of no economic activity during the pandemic, to 19.1%.

Coming in to a daunting task of pulling down again the poverty incidence with decrease National Tax Allotment, Aumentado faces a real challenge in his first year.

“Poverty Reduction has always been a top priority for Bohol, starting with the term of my late father, Governor Erico Boyles Aumentado,” he declared.

Noting that the problem of insurgency has always been rooted in poverty and lack of livelihood opportunities, the governor’s father decided to implement a two-pronged approach against the local rebellion: supporting the hard hand of military solution and the soft strategy of talking to communities and listening to their issues against the government.

Seeing poverty as the top reason for insurgency here, the elderly Aumentado sent out development teams implementing local poverty alleviation programs, opening up livelihood opportunities and effectively enjoining communities to a whole of nation approach in development.

By using a convergence strategy tested in Bohol insurgency areas, governments soon realized this extends the coverage of government assistance as everyone pools in the resources needed for communities to improve.

This has also significantly increased the development funds for insurgency affected or threatened barangays as the provincial government presents its funds as leverage to significantly extend the assistance.

“Now, we are very proud to report that the latest PSA data shows that we have succeeded once again in bringing our poverty incidence down to its lowest-ever level, at 14.8%!” he announced.

Picking up the same strategy from his father, Aumentado, who also faces the same predicament of meager development funds to jumpstart local development, has ordered the whole of government approach for poverty alleviation.

“To reduce poverty even further, I have given marching orders for the whole Provincial Government workforce to focus on the first 24 towns with the highest poverty incidence, and to prioritize them for programs and projects,” the governor said during his second address making his second year in office.

Aumentado administration also has luck by his side.

From the very beginning of this administration, we have pursued a clear direction and focused development agenda: our Strategic Governance Roadmap, the Roadmap highlights nine Strategic Change Agenda, fully supportive of the Philippine Development Plan of His Excellency President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., he presented.

Crafted in partnership with our officials and department heads, after consulting with local stakeholders, Aumentado administration has focused on a clear direction for Bohol.

Bohol would have to be a prime eco-cultural tourism destination and a strong balanced agro industrial province with a well-educated and God-loving and law abiding citizenry, proud of its cultural heritage and enjoying a state of well being, and committed to a sound environmental management, states the administration’s vision.

With a mission to enrich Bohols economic, social, cultural, political and environmental resources through governance and effective partnerships with stakeholders for increase global competitiveness, Aumentado also said everything ahs to be considering the people, the planet and then, profit.

Recently, Philippine Statistics Authority revealed that Bohol’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 7.1%.

This is an economic production of P171 Billion worth of goods and services, which is much higher than the 4.2% growth over the previous year, the governor pointed out.

This makes Bohol as the 3rd largest economy in Region7, in the overall ranking of Provinces and Highly Urbanized Cities. (PIABohol)