CEBU CITY — More than a hundred Cebuanos welcomed the arrival of the national poverty alleviation agenda, “Biyaya ng Pagbabago” Caravan, as it made its eighth stopover in Cebu on Wednesday.
However, only a fraction of the participants landed in Cebu as the rest of the group proceeded directly to Davao for the grand launch of the program on December 9.
“Biyaya ng Pagbabago” national secretariat Fr. Jose Elmer Cajilig, who is leading the Caravan, said it is impossible for them to bring everybody together as no boat is big enough to ferry everyone.
“Contrary to the general perception of a caravan, ours is a sort of a welcome-and-sendoff caravan where people will meet us in a designated stopover city or town and join us up to the next stopover. Participants will then make their own way to Davao instead of joining us for the next leg,” Cajilig explained.
At every stopover, he said, there would be a mass signing of a manifesto of support for the pro-poor “Biyaya ng Pagbabago” program initiated by the Office of Participatory Governance (OPG).
“Biyaya ng Pagbabago”, short for “Biyaya ng Pagbabago Tungo sa Masagana at Matiwasay na Buhay Pilipino”, is a poverty alleviation program of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr.
The program is aligned with the objectives of the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 to alleviate poverty in the country from 21.6 percent to 14 percent, which translates to the uplifting of the lives of about six million people listed below the poverty line.
Wendell Cabrera, OPG Visayas Cluster director, said “Biyaya ng Pagbabago” is aimed at making government services more responsive, adequate, effective, and timely, delivered to the most impoverished sectors of society.
“Our main objective is a timely trickle down of government services to the masses and to ensure a massive information campaign in the grassroots, as well as to urge the masses to claim these services,” Cabrera said.
The nationwide Caravan, organized by the pro-Duterte movement Kilusang Pagbabago, took off Dec. 1 in Ifugao and traveled to Pampanga, Metro Manila, Batangas, Bicol, Samar, Leyte, and Cebu.
The group was expected to leave Wednesday night and would arrive in Cagayan de Oro on Thursday for the start of the Mindanao leg.
From Cagayan de Oro, the group will travel to Marawi City and proceed to Davao via Cotabato.
President Rodrigo Duterte will launch “Biyaya ng Pagbabago” on Dec. 9 at the Freedom Park in Davao City, where 100,000 of his supporters are expected to converge. (PNA)
