25,000 indigents in CV to get cash next month

CEBU, Philippines - Almost 25,000 “poorest of the poor” households in Central Visayas will start receiving cash subsidy from the government next month through the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the 4Ps.

Some 21,980 eligible beneficiaries from the seven poorest municipalities in the province of Oriental Negros and 3,000 beneficiaries from the 10 most depressed barangays in Cebu City are set to receive the minimum of P9,000 per year or P800 per month cash grant from the DSWD.

The P9,000 minimum grant per household is broken down to P6,000 per year or P600 per month for the health and nutrition expenses and P3,000 for one school year equivalent to 10 months that makes it P300 per month per child for educational expenses. A maximum of three children per household is allowed and will be subsidized.

DSWD’s 4Ps is a poverty reduction strategy that provides grants to extremely poor households all over the country. Cash grants shall be used in the improvement of their health, nutrition and education particularly of children 14 years old and below. The program targets 750,000 households nationwide and uses a conditional cash transfer scheme which means that cash grants will only be given to them if they will be able to comply with various conditions.

DSWD requires that pregnant women must get prenatal and postnatal care and must be attended during childbirth by a skilled or trained health professional. Parents and guardians must attend responsible parenthood sessions, mother’s classes and parent effectiveness seminars.

Children up to five years old must be able to receive regular preventive health check-ups and vaccines while those three to five years old must attend day-care or preschool classes with at least 85 percent attendance.

Similarly, children six to 14 years old must enroll in elementary or high school and attend at least 85 percent of the time.

DSWD-7 regional focal person Asela Bella Tse said that the 4Ps is not merely a form of dole-out contrary to various criticisms hurled against the program. She said that cash is given upon compliance of the conditions from which they could ensure that the objectives of 4Ps are met.

Tse also said that 4Ps aims to lessen malnutrition through increased prenatal and postnatal checkups and minimizes dropouts among children of qualified beneficiaries.

“Our program is more on sustainability. We give them cash grants so they will continue to send their children to school and so they would be driven to avail of the health services offered in their barangays,” Tse said.

She reported that there indeed is a high rate of dropouts proportional to the low rate of literacy in Negros Oriental particularly in the selected seven barangays. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)