The National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) welcomed the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) 2025 Family Income and Expenditure Survey results, which show the national poverty incidence dropped to 9.7 percent from 15.5 percent in 2023.

In a statement on Sunday night, NAPC Lead Convenor and Secretary Lope Santos III attributed the achievement of a single-digit poverty incidence to the collective commitment and hard work of various stakeholders.

“The achievement of a single-digit poverty incidence well before the 2028 goal outlined in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 is because of our collective commitment and hard work, showing us the importance of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s whole-of-government, whole-of-nation, and whole-of-society approach in governance,” he said.

He thanked the government agencies, the basic sectors, local government units, and development partners for their steadfast partnership and strong leadership in the anti-poverty drive.

“While this is welcome news, we must ensure that this progress is truly reflective of the lived realities of our communities. We must also ensure that our progress is sustained, especially our interventions regarding access to quality education, health and nutrition, human capital development, agriculture, and food security,” he said.

Santos identified governance as a “keystone in poverty eradication,” urging expanded access to social services, increased public investment in infrastructure and utilities, and stronger private-sector partnerships to encourage investment.

He also stressed the need to build community resilience against external shocks by strengthening disaster risk reduction and management programs, emergency assistance, and peace and unification efforts.

“Through his (Marcos’s) vision, we have transformed our convergence efforts into something tangible for our communities, spurring economic development from the national to the local level, and making immense progress in our poverty reduction drive,” he said.

Santos expressed hope that stakeholders will “redouble their efforts to achieve bigger targets and maintain strong collective action” for Filipinos in the coming years. (PNA)