Anti-poverty coalition in Senate urged

Senate Minority Leader Renato Cayetano (Lakas) appealed to his colleagues yesterday for support in forging a bipartisan Coalition Against Poverty that would put on top of its agenda the passage of key economic reforms to fast-track the alleviation of poverty.

A leading contender for the Senate presidency, Cayetano said his proposed pro-poor coalition would give the highest priority to new legislation and key economic reforms that would provide the immediate "3Rs" of relief, recovery and reform to the national economy.

"It’s about time we buckled down to work and set aside partisan politics to pass new laws that would create more jobs and accelerate full employment," he said in a statement.

One of the reforms being proposed is the provision in the budget that would encourage labor-intensive government projects and activities over other public undertakings.