SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique, Dec. 14 (PNA) -– The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), one of the flagship programs that gives cash to its beneficiaries, has released a total of Ph1,286,509,600.00 to 28,459 households in the province of Antique for CY 2015.
This was reported by Mr. Lemuel T. Tabaosares, Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the 4Ps for DSWD-Field Office – 6. The province of Antique comprises the 9 percent of the total household coverage in the whole Western Visayas as of November 23, 2015.
The coverage reached 318,800 household beneficiaries. There are also indigenous peoples households that were able to receive cash grants amounting to PHP7,240,000.00 for 362 IP households.
Based on Tabaosares’ report, a total of 1,660 households or 3.44 percent were covered by the regular conditional cash transfer for IP families.
However, a big bulk of this number of beneficiaries will be affected by the PHP-8 billion budget cut in the cash grant. The DSWD national office was made aware of a Senate-initiated cut in the cash grants in its 2016 proposed budget.
DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman appealed to the Senate, and to the senators concerned, namely Vicente “Tito” Sotto, Juan Ponce Enrile and Loren Legarda to put back the cut as it will deprive 4.4 billion households of health, educational and other benefits from the program. In Antique, more than 28,000 families will be deprived due to the big cut for two months.
The 4Ps has already produced high school students who graduated as valedictorians from all over the region and are now enjoying scholarships in their respective colleges and universities. In Antique, there are 323 slots for the expanded scholarship programs allotted for 4Ps families. (PNA)