BAGUIO CITY: Some 56,000 poor households from the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) have been included in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) since 2007, a Social Welfare and Development official said Tuesday.
Fatima Florendo, Department of Social Welfare and Development-CAR (DSWD-CAR) regional program coordinator and division chief for the 4Ps program, in a Bagong Pilipinas (New Philippines) briefing in this city, said compliant beneficiary families receive PHP6,900 every two months.
She said families who are compliant to the health and parenting conditions of the program also receive PHP750 per month as well as the monthly rice subsidy amounting to PHP600.
Students in elementary enrolled in the program are given PHP300 education grant per month while PHP 500 for those in junior high and senior high, PHP7000.
‘The amount of cash grants have been pegged just enough to motivate households to comply but not too high to foster dependency,’ Florendo said.
In Abra, at least 1,314 families have
graduated from the program while 956 in Apayao; 773 in Baguio City; 5,261 in Benguet; 2,046 in Ifugao; 3,049 in Kalinga; and 1,408 in Mountain Province.
‘They have attained level 3 or self-sufficiency rating based on their latest social welfare and development indicator result,’ Florendo said.
The official said the DSWD has recorded a high rate among family beneficiaries with kids trying to finish their schooling and are complying with the health requirements of the program.
She also revealed that of those who have graduated from the program, 1,174 4Ps children have finished college; 1,081 have passed board examinations; 1,077 are already employed, with 10 of them working in the DSWD.
Of those who graduated, 76 finished cum laude, 13 are magna cum laude, and one is a summa cum laude.
Florendo said one component of the 4Ps program is that beneficiaries are also eligible to avail of the sustainable livelihood program, giving them the chance to start a business or to improve an existing one.
Relatively, De
partment of Labor and Employment-Cordillera (DOLE-CAR) director Nathaniel Lacambra, during the opening of the ‘Kalayaan (Independence) Jobs Fair’ program at SM City Baguio on Wednesday, said that “the government has activities and programs that make people free from joblessness, from having no money to provide their needs and from sudden difficult situations.’
‘These are (being) done by the government because it wants to help its people graduate from poverty, so let us avail of the government programs and projects to aid us in our needs,’ he added.
DSWD materials given to the Philippine News Agency showed that a 4Ps parent-leader, Esther Ekid, 45, a single mom, is thankful for the program because it continues to help her provide for her four kids.
A former domestic helper in Jordan who was impregnated by a foreign national and then later had three children with her partner, who eventually left them, Ekid is thankful for the 4Ps, which she soon will graduate from after being enrolled starting in 2011.
‘I a
m ready to graduate from the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program). Being a parent leader has not just provided me with additional skills, but has given me the self-confidence that will guide me through as I survive my three younger children who are in school,’ she said.
Ekid is currently working as a job order utility worker at the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC) but has passed the Civil Service Commission’s (CSC) eligibility examination, which qualifies her for a permanent position in government service.
Source: Philippines News Agency
