Graduating CCT beneficiaries readied for self-sufficiency

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines  – A unified transition plan is being readied for the 13,000 beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer program or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the Cordillera region.

A regional workshop has been conducted to produce the Regional Transition Plan for the graduating Set 1 beneficiaries, said Leonardo Reynoso, regional director of the DSWD-Cordillera.

Several groups helping the government had to identify programs and services that will be targeted and implemented among different stakeholders and key result areas like basic services and livelihood, he explained.

“The goal is to move the living conditions of the beneficiaries from survival to self-sufficiency,” Reynoso said.

Transforming the Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) meeting as Regional Transition Planning Workshop,  stakeholders in the primary poverty alleviation program of the government including town local government operation officers from set 1 beneficiaries in the region joined to plan and provide inputs on existing conditions in these areas, said Irene Bungay, regional program coordinator of the 4Ps in the highland.

Bungay said the 13,000 beneficiaries are graduating from the program this December.

According to the DSWD, as of March 2013, the Pantawid CCT program is covering 58,512 families,  80 percent of the total number of target beneficiaries.

There remain some 14,570 households which are potential beneficiaries from all the poor households according to the new poverty status report in the region.

According to government statistics, there are 73,082 poor households in the CAR or a  22.6-percent poverty incidence.