About 187,000 of the 3.1 million beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program are expected to graduate from it next year as they will have reached the five-year dependency on the program by then.
In the signing of the memorandum of agreement between the Department of Social Welfare and Development and two Davao del Sur municipalities in their inclusion in the Set 6 of the program, Wadel S. Cabrera III said the soon-to-graduate beneficiaries have started their intensive intervention to prepare them to exit the program.
“They have to be provided with intervention so that they will be ready when they exit the program,” said Mr. Cabrera, pointing out that each beneficiary is provided with P10,000 for sustainable livelihood projects that they would identify.
He said the beneficiaries are grouped so that they can pool their fund and come up with better livelihood initiatives.
Mr. Cabrera added that there is also an assessment undergoing to evaluate whether those who will graduate are ready to exit the program. Preparing them in the transition period after the five-year period in staying in the program is the intervention to provide them livelihood activities for additional sources of income.
Next year, the program will also have additional 700,000 beneficiaries including those identified through its Set6. As a result of the increase in beneficiaries, the budget of the program is also expected to be raised to P44 billion, or an additional P5 billion on top of this year’s budget, Mr. Cabrera.
Included in the latest set of beneficiaries are the Padada and Hagonoy in Davao del Sur whose mayors signed the agreement.
Based on the data from the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the program has 168,624 beneficiaries in six cities and 41 municipalities in the region. “The inclusion of Hagonoy and Padada results in the 100% coverage of the program in all the areas of the region,” a briefing material said.
In his response, Hagonoy Mayor Franco M. Calida said the entry of the program in the second class municipality will help the local government in alleviating the lives of the poor. “We are thankful to the department for including us as this is another way to fight poverty,” said Mr. Calida, a retired police official.
Under the program, each child of a family receives P300 if the child is below 14 with the money intended for the education of the child. A family can enrol maximum of three children.
Each family also receives P500 for the health and nutrition under the program.
For the family to stay in the program, each child must register an 85% school attendance, all the children must undergo healthcare intervention and the entire family must undergo family development session every month.
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