Loan incentive for 4Ps beneficiaries

CEBU, Philippines - Aside from financial assistance it will grant to the so-called “poorest of the poor,” the Department of Social Welfare and Development will be allowing beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P’s) a P10,000 loan to start a livelihood.

DSWD spokesperson Aileen Lariba said the loan will not have any interest and will be payable for two years.

Lariba clarified, however, that not all 4P’s beneficiaries can avail of the loan, unless they can prove that they can manage a business and market their products. Screening of beneficiaries is ongoing, she said.

Under the 4P’s project, DSWD would identify the poorest families in selected places. Beneficiaries will be granted financial assistance of P500 every month and another P300 to three children below 14 years old.

DSWD staff Asela Bella Tse said that in Cebu City, the 4P’s program has been expanded from 10 to 23 more barangays where the “poorest of the poor” families live. She said they have already identified 3,000 beneficiaries from the first 10 barangays and are collating data from the 13 additional barangays.

Tse said they have already issued a warning to families availing of the financial assistance to comply with the needed requirements otherwise DSWD will be forced to stop granting the cash aid.

DSWD can stop granting the financial assistance if parents of the beneficiaries will be engaged in habitual drunkenness or gambling. Tse said there is a possibility that the parents would just use the money for their vices instead of sending their children to school, which is the primary objective of the project.

The 4P’s project allows members of underprivileged families to meet certain human development goals and break the poverty cycle by addressing issues of low educational achievement, high maternal and infant mortality rate, high malnutrition rate and high rate of child labor among the poor.

One of the requirements is that the parents or guardians of the beneficiaries must attend family planning sessions, mothers’ classes, and parent effectiveness seminars, and the children aged zero to five years must be brought to health centers for them to receive regular preventive health checkups and vaccines.

Children aged five years old must attend day care or pre-school classes at least 85 percent of the time, while those aged six to 14 years old must enroll in elementary or high school and attend classes. — (FREEMAN)