‘Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program to be tackled in PIA Kapihan’
CEBU CITY, May 13 (PIA) - Amid the prevailing economic crisis more visibly felt with rising prices of petroleum, the administration’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program comes extremely useful particularly with the imminent opening of the school year.
A mother of six children living in one of the poor slums in Cebu City and one of the identified beneficiaries of the administration’s poverty alleviation program described the financial assistance as a blessing especially in these times of economic distress gravely punctuated with rising oil prices.
“Ang tabang gihatag nako pina-agi sa programa dako kaayo ug gika-amot sa panginahanglan sa akong mga anak nga maka eskwela,” (The financial assistance given to me through the program is a big help in the education needs of my children), according to Era Sinangote whose husband is a construction worker with no permanent income.
The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino is a flagship program of President Aquino aimed at providing cash assistance to poor families in two specific basic needs --- health and education.
A monthly cash assistance of P500 for health maintenance and P300 educational grant per child of below 14 years of age with a maximum of three schoolchildren-beneficiaries per family is given to identified poor families by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that is tasked to implement the program by the President.
“The program is an answer to our pledge to achieve the country’s Millennium Development Goals of eradicating poverty,” according to Aileen Lariba, the program information and advocacy officer of DSWD-7.
While the conditional cash transfer started during the previous administration, with only 1 million beneficiaries out of the 4M identified recipients due to budget constraints but Pres. Aquino expanded the coverage to 2.3 beneficiaries for this year allocating a budget of P27B for 2011.
“This year, more poor families can avail of the poverty alleviation program with the expanded number of recipients. Although Pres. Aquino wanted to include all the 4M identified beneficiaries but this entails a very huge budget as the program runs for five years” Lariba said.
In Central Visayas, the program’s coverage of target beneficiaries has expanded tripling the number of recipients from less than 50,000 last year to 148,000 household beneficiaries, this is learned.
As the school year is just a few weeks away, the expanded coverage of target beneficiaries will definitely help poor families tide their expenses on the educational needs of their children.
Sinangote is just one of the needy families in Cebu that needs all the help it can get to cope with the present financial difficulties. With a husband whose income is not stable and with six children to feed, the P1,100 monthly cash assistance for health and education needs of her two children comes as a big blessing as she expressed gratitude for such a program.
“Ang monthly allowance nako nga 500 para sa panglawas ug P300 para sa edukasyun sa akong duha ka anak dako na kaayo na para namo nga naglisud jud intawon sa panginabuhi,” (The monthly allowance of P500 for health and P300 each for the education of my two children is already a very big help to us who are really very hard-up in life) revealed Sinangote.
Meanwhile, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program will be featured in the weekly Kapihan sa PIA in Cebu next week highlighting its accomplishments in the region particularly in Cebu. (PIA 7-Cebu)