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SWD forum highlights anti-poverty initiatives

With resource persons from Local Government Units and national government agencies, the Social Welfare and Development (SWD) Forum conducted by DSWD Field Office VI brought more learning on anti-poverty initiatives in Western Visayas.

"Our focus in today's forum is on poverty alleviation. We are advocating the use of the Social Welfare and Development Situationer for local planning and budgeting. With the SWD situationer, we would be able to push for more social welfare and development initiatives," said OIC Regional Director Teresita S. Rosales during the SWD forum conducted on November 28, 2006.

Among the resource persons during the SWD forum include Mayor Rolando Distura of Dumangas, Iloilo; Mayor Raul Banias of Concepcion, Iloilo; National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Regional Director Arturo Valero; and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Local Government Operations Officer V Cherryl Tacda.

"It is only with political will and the right motivation that we could properly address poverty. With us today are our invited guests who would share with us their development efforts. May these be a learning experience to us on how to respond to poverty," stressed Rosales.

Valero discussed anti-poverty issues such as high population growth, inadequate resources for poverty-related programs, disjointed implementation of poverty-related programs and ineffective targeting of beneficiaries for poverty Initiatives.

He also added that there is an existing ineffective targeting in poverty-initiatives. On scholarships, 7.8 percent of recipients come from the poor and 36.9 come from the rich. On housing projects, 8.9 percent belong to the poor and 44.9 come from the rich.

On the other hand, Cherryl Tacda, Regional Millennium Development Goals (MDG) focal person of DILG, tackled "Localizing the Millennium Development Goals."

Child-friendly seal and P50,000 checks were also handed to each regional winner of the Search for the Presidential Awards for the Most Child-friendly cities and municipalities. The regional winners are Bacolod City for the Highly-Urbanized Cities category; Jordan in Guimaras for the 1st to 3nd Class municipalities category; and New Lucena for the 4th to 6th Class municipality category.

TAMPAD project: caring for the elderly, PWDs

Mayor Rolando Distura of the municipality of Dumangas presented one of the best practices in social welfare and development in his municipality--the implementation of the TAMPAD project.

TAMPAD stands for Transportation Allowance and Mobility Program Assistance for deserving Persons with Disabilities, Senior Citizens and Veterans of Dumangas. Tampad is a local dialect which means fidelity and loyalty. Sangguniang Bayan Ordinance No. 06-13 was enacted on September 6, 2006 to provide funds for the implementation of the project annually.

Tampad project is implemented by issuing chips worth P50 per quarter to eligible recipients. Each chip is worth P10. The chips shall be issued by the Office of the Mayor, the distribution of which shall be through the accredited/recognized associations.

The president of each association (or in the case of the Veterans, the Dumangas Post Commander) or any of his/her authorized representative shall be the only person allowed to receive such chips on behalf of their respective associations. The drivers of tricycles, Tri-sikad, Public Utility Jeepneys (PUJs) or FilCabs who have received chips as transportation payments will return the chips (singly or accumulated) to the Municipal Treasurer's Office and have them exchanged/reimbursed for their cash equivalent).

Eligible beneficiaries are filipino citizens and residents of Dumangas, must be a member of the association/s recognized or accredited, must be a holder of the I.D. of the association, must have a total income of less than P20,000 per year below and a combine family income of not more than P100,000 in assessed value.

The Municipal Treasurer's Office shall have a tally sheet to record the drivers, type of vehicle, plate numbers, cash amount in chips and other significant data. The tally sheet shall be used as basis in granting incentives to the drivers with the highest accumulated number of chips or amount in their cash equivalent. The type or kind of incentive to be later determined by the assigned/task group created for the purpose.

For year 2004, a total of 334 have availed of the project. A total of 552 and 317 senior citizens, PWDs and veterans have so far availed of the project for years 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Dreaming the dream: The Concepcion experience

Mayor Raul Banias of Concepcion, Iloilo imparted how his municipality championed convergence of services.

"Our tagline for the municipality of Concepcion is Dreaming the dream. For the nine years of my leadership, we have kept in mind to achieve Vision 2020 Zero Poverty. We grabbed every possible way for improvement--from Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS), Gawad Kalinga, KALAHI-CIDSS and Child Welfare Initiatives. So far, that has helped us reduce poverty by half. Putting the welfare of children in the forefront of governance is ensuring a good future for the municipality," stressed Banias.

Banias said that being a leader, one has to be mission-driven and an agent of change. "Leaders are not born.They are made. We should all be dreamers in order to achieve something."

With the leadership of Banias, Concepcion has won various awards on social welfare and development which include the Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award and Localizing Local Initiatives on the Millennium Development Goals, the very recent citations received in October this year.

(dswd6/mcastillo)