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QUEZON CITY, Philippines (Eagle News) — The National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) on Thursday called for reforms in the government’s anti-poverty policies, noting that the creation of decent and sufficient jobs and incomes should be the main strategy in poverty eradication.
The NAPC made the call as it launched its book, “Reforming Philippine Anti-Poverty Policy,” in a forum held in Quezon City.
“Many Filipinos are still trapped in poverty and inequality…we have subscribed to the same neoliberal framework that has been proven as a development failure all over the world. Free-market economics failed to develop our local agriculture and industry,” NAPC chief Liza Maza said.
Maza said it is creating decent and sufficient employment with living wages that will improve the quality of life of most Filipinos.
As such, she said there was a need to regulate foreign investments to allow for the creation of domestic industries for local employment.
“Our self-reliance as a domestic economy has been drowned in an export-oriented, import-dependent industrial strategy, allowing foreign monopolies to squander our national resources and benefit from cheap labor,” she said.
The NAPC chief said she hopes that the book will inspire meaningful debates among policy-makers and advocates and usher in a comprehensive and integrated approach to poverty eradication this year.
The commission submitted a copy of the book to President Rodrigo Duterte and waits for the opportunity to present it in detail.
