More families avail of dole-outs

published April 20, 2010 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- The number of beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in Eastern Visayas has gone up to over 124,000 families.

These families will receive financial assistance in the next five years, said Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Regional Director Letecia T. Corillo. The program has been expanded from Northern Samar and Samar to all provinces in Eastern Visayas.

"We are now preparing the municipalities for the implementation and we hired people to help us do community assemblies to validate the condition of beneficiaries," Ms. Corillo said in an interview with BusinessWorld.

The validation will pave for the drawing up of a final list of beneficiaries who will receive P6,000 a year or P500 per month for health and nutrition expenses and P3,000 for one school year or P300 a month per child for educational expenses.
The amount is given to households that were predetermined by the DSWD to be among the poorest of the poor. It will continue until 2015.

"For Eastern Samar, Leyte and Southern Leyte, we are still in the social preparation stage. They will start receiving the money after elections," Ms. Corillo said.
"In Northern Samar and Samar, we’ve been releasing financial assistance for health and education," she added.

A family with three qualified children can receive the assistance monthly provided that they diligently follow certain conditions such as availment of health services by pregnant mothers and children aged 0-14 and enrollment in schools of children 3-14 years old with attendance not lower than 85% of the time. Parents are also required to attend parenting sessions regularly.

"It will not be affected by the change in leadership because there are funding agencies that are committed to provide financial assistance in case the government cannot do it," she said.

Since 2008, a total of 363,388 household beneficiaries in Northern Samar have enrolled in the program and are receiving conditional cash grants. The number doubled in June 2009 as the program expanded to all municipalities of Samar. The 4Ps was launched by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in March 2007.