P82M 4Ps cash aid benefits 16T WV families
Cash grants amounting to P82.2 million have been handed out to 16,910 household-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the provinces of Antique, Iloilo and Aklan in Western Visayas.
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Regional Director Teresita S. Rosales said that since the program was launched in 2008, they have already granted cash subsidies to two sets of beneficiaries who were identified using government poverty indicators.
President Arroyo personally distributed the Pantawid assistance to beneficiaries of the program in Antique in April and in Aklan last August during her visits to the said provinces.
Rosales said during a press conference held September 29 here that the two sets of beneficiaries in the region come from the municipalities of San Remegio, Laua-an, Valderrama, Barbaza and Bugasong in Antique, Iloilo City, and municipalities of Libacao and Madalag in Aklan.
The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program was adopted by President Arroyo to enable poor Filipinos to enjoy the fruits of her economic reform program that includes the implementation of the Expanded Value Added Tax (EVAT).
4Ps is a poverty reduction strategy that provides cash grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly children aged 0-14 years old as government investment in human capital.
Rosales said a household can receive as much as P1, 400.00 for a maximum of three children that includes P500.00 a month for nutrition and health expenses and P300.00 monthly per child with a maximum of three children per household for educational expenses.
The cash grants are given to beneficiaries either over the counter or through cash cards through the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). (PIA 6-JSC)