The present Administration has the laudable objective of reducing the Philippine population below the poverty line of about 68 pesos per person per day (US $1.5) from approximately 25% this year to 16% by 2016.  They have a fighting chance if they really are able to implement an aggressive infrastructure program in the countryside (farm-to-market roads, irrigation systems, post-harvest facilities, potable water, etc); invest considerably more in improving the quality of basic education (up to the senior high school level); build more barangay health clinics, including maternity wards that are the most effective means of reducing both infant and maternal mortality (not family planning); and continue to administer efficiently and honestly the Conditional Cash Transfer program.  All these have to be focused on the rural areas where 75% of the poor live, especially in such regions as the Autonomous Region of Mindanao, CARAGA, Bicol, Eastern Visayas and Cagayan Valley.