President Rodrigo Duterte has directed all the concerned government agencies to support and actively participate in implementing "Sambayanihan: Serbisyong Sambayanan," a program, which aims to cut poverty incidence in the country.

Sambayanihan is a program intended to carry out the directive of the President to reduce poverty incidence in the country by 7.6 percent by year 2022, according to Memorandum Circular No. 59, which Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea signed on March 6 by the authority of the President.

The Sambayanihan, its caravan and other component programs seek to provide a venue for inter-agency collaboration at the provincial and municipal levels to address the root causes of poverty.

"To ensure a 'whole-of-government' approach to poverty alleviation and widest deployment of basic social services to our poorest communities, all government agencies and instrumentalities, including government-owned or -controlled corporations, are hereby directed to support, participate and provide the necessary assistance, consistent with their respective mandates, to the NAPC (National Anti-Poverty Commission) in the implementation of the Sambayanihan, its Caravan and component programs, subject to existing laws, rules and issuances, inclduing budgetary policies and regulations," Medialdea said.

Latest available data by the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that in 2015, poverty incidence among Filipinos was estimated at 21.6 percent. Celerina Monte/DMS