4,000 Albay families receive cash aid

LEGAZPI CITY , Philippines  – Some 4,000 poor families in Albay yesterday received a monthly cash assistance of P1,400 each, or a total of P5.6 million, under the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) which the provincial government is implementing.

The beneficiaries are residents of Daraga, Polangui and Libon towns who were earlier screened by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

One thousand families in Sto. Domingo town received the same cash assistance earlier this year. Another 1,000 from the three other towns will receive theirs on July 20.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said he would continue implementing the program, as the Aquino administration has already expressed interest in the pro-poor scheme.

“We are quite encouraged by the policy statement of the new President that this would be the only program of the past administration that he would continue,” he said.

Salceda said the program would enable Albay to achieve the United Nations Millen­nium Development Goals (MDGs) and help maintain health outcomes that were totally achieved in 2008.

“And this is backed up by the installation of one of President Aquino’s closest long-time advisers on social policy, Madam Dinky Soliman, at the helm of DSWD,” he said.

The 4Ps started three years ago after the Philippines joined other countries in signing the MDGs, which target to reduce poverty, among other problems, by 2015.

Salceda expressed optimism that under the Aquino administration, the budget for 4Ps would be doubled from the present P15 billion to cover more beneficiaries.