‘Dutertenomics’, the socioeconomic blueprint of the Duterte administration, through its massive ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure program funded by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act, has lifted about six million Filipinos from the quagmire of poverty.
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chair of the House ways and means committee, said saving such a huge number of the population from the clutches of penury is “by far the most significant positive news in the first three years of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.”
“The number of poor individuals decreased by almost six million from 23.5 million in 2015 to 17.6 million in 2018,” said Salceda, a known economist who coined the catch-call ‘Dutertenomics’ for the masterplan he presented to Duterte during the first year of his administration.
Quoting recent government data, the lawmaker said “poverty incidence among individuals fell substantially by 6.7 percent to 16.6 percent in 2018, from 23.3 percent in 2015”.
Among families, poverty incidence fell by 5.8 percent to 12.1 percent from 17.9 percent during the same period, liberating 1.1 million families from poverty, from 4.1 million down to three million.
Salceda, who also principally authored the TRAIN Law, the first package of the administration’s economic reforms, said the “magnitudes of poverty reduction are among the biggest since 1986, and more so, it breaks the usual trend where poverty incidence is lower but the number of poor people is higher due to higher population growth in poor families which are typically bigger-sized.”
