Anti-Poverty Program: DSWD to identify CV beneficiaries

CEBU - The Department of Social Welfare and Development-7 has started its survey to determine which selected households from different depressed areas in Central Visayas will benefit from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the 4Ps, one of government’s poverty reduction programs.

Four municipalities in Negros Oriental have already been visited by enumerators from DSWD-7 to assess the poverty situation in the area needed in the implementation of 4Ps and other interventions of the government.

Some 20,000 households in the municipalities of La Libertad, Bindoy, Vallehermoso, Ayungon and Tayasan were surveyed.

Based on surveys and assessments, DSWD will select 44,123 beneficiaries of 4Ps.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is one of the many initiatives of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on poverty alleviation.

Implemented by the DSWD, it was launched to shield the people from the effects of soaring prices of oil, goods and other commodities.

The program conditional transfer of cash to extremely poor households to allow family members meet basic needs for human development goals to break the poverty cycle.

It addresses educational concerns, focuses on issues like high maternal and infant mortality rate, high malnutrition and high rate of child labor among the less fortunate people.

Beneficiaries will have to comply with certain conditions like they have to send their children to school or to health centers regularly which made it unique from other programs.

Under the program, a family beneficiary with maximum of three children will receive a monthly allowance of P1,400, a P500 monthly allowance for nutrition and health expenses, and P3,000 for one school year or P300 per month for educational expenses per child for at most six years.

Non-compliance by the beneficiaries would mean suspension of cash grants or dropping of the program.

Poorest areas nationwide were selected based on Small Scale Estimates. Computerized selection based on ranking system assesses the socio-economic characteristics like ownership of asset, type of housing unit, level of educational attainment, access to water sanitation and the likes.

The program was piloted in Region X, National Capital Region and Caraga. Some 6000 households have started receiving their cash assistance earlier this year in Agusan del Sur, Misamis Occidental, and the cities of Pasay and Caloocan. — Jessica Ann Pareja/WAB (THE FREEMAN)