Friday, December 19, 2008 City distributes gifts to families By Liway C. Manantan-Yparraguirre
URDANETA CITY -- Around 2,100 indigent families coming from the different barangays here will receive Christmas gift packs from the City Government on Friday.
Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. said P300,000 was allotted for this year's Pamaskong Handog para sa mga Mahihirap.
Fifth district Representative Mark Cojuangco and Engineer Rosendo So, Abono Partylist chairman, each donated 30 cavans of rice.
There are also non-government organizations (NGO) and institutions joining the City Government in this yearly project.
The distribution will be held at the Urdaneta City Sports and Civic Center. It will be supervised by private groups and each recipient will be given a claim stub to ensure orderly and smooth distribution of the gift packs.
Each gift pack contains rice, canned goods, coffee, and other items.
Perez said each barangay captain submitted a list of indigent family-recipients duly validated by the city social welfare and development office.
This project was started by Perez in the 80s.
Since there are also NGOs and other groups conducting gift-giving activities on the month of December, Perez said he asked them to synchronize their distribution with that of the city. Thus, one family usually receives two or three gift packs every Christmas.
