DSWD ready to give cash aid to 9.3 million indigent families

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is ready to implement the government’s extended targeted cash transfer (TCT) program, which will benefit some 9.3 million indigent families amid the soaring cost of commodities.

TCT beneficiaries are “either the poorest of the poor or those belonging to the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) and indigent senior citizens,” according to DSWD Assistant Secretary for Special Projects Romel Lopez.

“This will be fast. Once funds are downloaded to us, it will be topped up or deposited in the cash card or ATM (automated teller machine accounts) of the beneficiaries,” Lopez said during the Laging Handa briefing last Friday.

The funds are expected to come from the Department of Budget and Management.

The program was supposed to end last year, but it was ordered extended by President Marcos to help indigent Filipinos cope with the impact of inflation on the prices of fuel and other commodities.

In a phone interview, DSWD Undersecretary Eduardo Punay, who is the national coordinator of the TCT program, noted that each beneficiary stands to receive P500 more for two months or a total of P1,000.

“This is just a continuation of the TCT program. They already received P2,000 or P500 each month for four months,” Punay said.

He underscored that the DSWD had already distributed some P18.7 billion during the first phase of the program, and they need around P10 billion more for the extended TCT.