MANILA, Philippines— For Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, getting six million Filipinos out of poverty was the “hardest” and “most demanding” challenge President Rodrigo Duterte had laid out in his State of the Nation Address (Sona). Speaking before the joint session of Congress on Monday, Duterte reported that poverty declined in the country. ADVERTISEMENT“Poverty incidence fell from 27.6 percent in the first half of 2015 to 21 percent in the first half of 2018,” he said. “The most important number, though, is the six million Filipinos we need to pull out from poverty,” Duterte said. “Kindly help me on this.”But Recto said, “Of all the challenges the President had laid out, the hardest is the liberation of 6 million of our countrymen from poverty.”“This is the Six Million Challenge that confronts us all.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer July 23, 2019 00:49 UTC