2T families to get ‘Pantawid cards’
Friday, March 19, 2010
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LOCAL government’s poverty reduction strategy will benefit 2,000 families who will receive P3,200 as an “allowance” for every three months.
The program dubbed: Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is part of the National Government’s program to award cash grants to families identified as the poorest among the poor.
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An amount of P110,075,700 was released on November 2009 to eleven cities and municipalities in the Davao region, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said.
The DSWD office has awarded 1,200 cash cards to financially-challenged families and will award 800 more cash cards on Saturday.
"They (beneficiaries) have told us na nahihirapan kasi silang pumunta sa downtown area. They had to spend P300 to P500 para makarating sa atin. So since P1,400 per month yung allowances, it would be P3,200 every quarter of the year," DSWD 4P coordinator Ellen Labrador said.
Instead of monthly release, the financial assistance will now be on a quarterly basis, she added.
"It is the first time that we handed over the cash cards to the beneficiaries because bago lang rin natapos yung Land Bank na mag-release ng mga cash cards. Before we implemented this program through a payroll, now yung mga beneficiaries na ang pupunta sa Land Bank and will use the cash cards like an ATM (automated teller machine) card," she said.
The beneficiaries are from 39 barangays (of the 182). They are from all three districts in the city, Labrador said in a phone interview.
Labrador said although the program is a "short-term poverty alleviation" strategy it invests on "human capital, primarily focusing on the improvement of health, nutrition and education particularly of the growing members of the family with children age from 0 to 14.
In December 2009 DSWD said that 45,363 households in Davao Region has benefited from the program. The program since 2008 has catered to beneficiaries from Davao del Sur, Davao Del Norte, Compostella Valley, and Davao Oriental. (Jade C. Zaldivar)
