Marañon urges close monitoring of 4Ps in Negros

 BACOLOD CITY, Philippines  — Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. called on the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to “closely monitor” the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) or conditional cash transfer in Negros Occidental.

Marañon said the government wants to ensure that the money intended for the project should be spent by the parents for its intended use, and not on gambling and liquors.

DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, who was in Bacolod Saturday, disclosed that the 4Ps now covers 86,703 beneficiaries in Negros Occidental, and will cover more in 2013.

Soliman said that since its launch in 2010, they have already disbursed about P703 million for 4Ps in Negros Occidental, with P231 million more to be released this year.

“We would like to ensure that the children of the poorest of the poor can finish their studies in elementary….We would like to make sure that these children in Pantawid Pamilya would be spared from the same experiences of their parents…. We are actually breaking poverty,” Soliman said.  (FREEMAN)