Section 2December 11, 1997, Sec./Art. 2

Declaration of policy. – It is the policy of the State to:

(1) Adopt an area-based, sectoral and focused intervention to poverty alleviation wherein every poor Filipino family shall be empowered to meet its minimum basic needs of health, food and nutrition, water and environmental sanitation, income security, shelter and decent housing, peace and order, education and functional literacy, participation in governance, and family care and psycho-social integrity;

(2) Actively pursue asset reform or redistribution of productive economic resources to the basic sectors including the adoption of a system of public spending which is targeted towards the poor;

(3) Institutionalize and enhance the Social Reform Agenda, hereinafter known as the SRA, which embodies the results of the series of consultations and summits on poverty alleviation;

(4) Adopt and operationalize the following principles and strategies as constituting the national framework integrating various structural reforms and anti-poverty initiatives:

(a) Social reform shall be a continuing process that addresses the basic inequities in Philippine society through a systematic package of social interventions;

(b) The SRA shall be enhanced by government in equal partnership with the different basic sectors through appropriate and meaningful consultations and participation in governance;

(c) Policy, programs and resource commitments from both government and the basic sectors shall be clearly defined to ensure accountability and transparency in the implementation of the Social Reform Agenda;

(d) A policy environment conducive to sustainable social reform shall be pursued;

(e) The SRA shall address the fight against poverty through a multi-dimensional and cross-sectoral approach which recognizes and respects the core values, cultural integrity, and spiritual diversity of target sectors and communities;

(f) The SRA shall pursue a gender-responsive approach to fight poverty;

(g) The SRA shall promote ecological balance in the different ecosystems, in a way that gives the basic sectors a major stake in the use, management, conservation and protection of productive resources;

(h) The SRA shall take into account the principle and interrelationship of population and development in the planning and implementation of social reform programs thereby promoting self-help and self-reliance; and

(i) The SRA implementation shall be focused on specific target areas and basic sectors.