Pantawid Pamilya Program expands to 13 more towns

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) will add 13 more municipalities for its Set 3A and Set 3B implementation in Davao Region.
“We are more than glad to announce that 4Ps is expanding to other municipalities to help the poorest households in the region,” said Ma. Elena S. Labrador, 4Ps Regional Program Manager.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing between the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the newly-selected 4Ps municipalities was held last month at Malacañang Palace. Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, DSWD Secretary Eaperanza I. Cabral and the municipal mayors of the said municipalities attended the MOA signing.
The 13 new areas for Set 3A: Compostela, Compostela Valley with 1,000 identified households; Davao City with an additional 800 households; and Kiblawan, Davao del Sur with 1,315 households.
Set 3B identified municipalities are: Kapalong, Davao del Norte with 586 households; New Corella, Asuncion, Samal, Braulio E. Dujali, Carmen, Sto. Tomas, Panabo City in Davao del Norte with 500 identified households each. Also selected for Set 3B are the towns of Governor Generoso and San Isidro in Davao Oriental with 500 households each as well.
Currently, a total of 45,363 households have benefited from 4Ps in its Set 1 and Set 2 areas. As of November 2009, a total amount of P 110,075,700.00 has been released to the beneficiaries in these areas.
4Ps is a poverty-alleviation strategy by the national government which provides cash grants to the poorest households in the country. The program invests on human capital primarily focusing on the improvement of health, nutrition and education of children aged 0-14 years old. The beneficiaries will have to comply with the conditionalities required by the program to continue receiving the grants and remain in the program.
4Ps is benchmarked after the successful Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs in Latin America where it was cited as one of the key factors behind the positive socio-economic outcome achieved by Brazil. [PR]