“Kaya ko ipinapaliwanag sa inyo ito, para ipaliwanag n’yo sa kanila. Ikalat natin ang magandang inpormasyong ito,” (The reason why I am explaining it to you is for you to do the same thing. Let us spread this good information) said Corazon Soliman, Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), during the breakfast meeting with the DSWD staff of Region III last January 23, 2015 at Harvest Hotel, Cabanatuan City.
The breakfast meeting was held in preparation for the People’s Dialogue on Empowerment and Good Governance later that very day. Sec. Soliman informed the group that there had been a total 1.5 million PantawidPamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries who are no longer in the poor index; the 1.5 million beneficiaries are now classified as non-poor based on the Listahanan or National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR). Among the 1.5 million beneficiaries, 55% of them came from Region III. It is a proof that Pantawid is functioning as a helping hand in aiding the people to cross the way out of poverty.
“But it does not mean that they are classified non-poor, they will be out of the program. They are the sole responsible for their elimination, and that is non-compliance,” explained Sec. Soliman. The household beneficiaries must comply the following: in education, children 6-18 years old must be enrolled in primary/secondary schools or equivalent (such as Alternative Learning System [ALS]) and must at least have 85% attendance, children 3-5 year old must attend day care/pre-school program with at least 85% school attendance; for health, children 0-5 years old must get regular preventive health check-ups, growth monitoring, and vaccines, pregnant women must get pre-natal care and must be attended by skilled/professional health during child birth (mothers who have given birth must get post-natal care in accordance with the attendance of DOH protocol, children 6-14 years old must receive deworming pills twice a year; and in Family Development Session (FDS), parents/guardians must attend the monthly FDS where there is a discussion on effective parenting, husband and wife relationship, child development, laws affecting the Filipino family, Gender and Development (GAD), and home management.
According to her there is a P9 million 2016 budget for the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) to assure that the 1.5 million determined non-poor beneficiaries will no longer fall back into the pit of poverty. “Sila ang tututukan natin para ‘di sil amawala, para ‘wag silang malaglag ulit. Pasisiglahin natin ang employment capacity nila,” (We are going to focus on them so that they will not end up falling. We are going to invigorate the employment capacity) she said. She then ended up her statement by mentioning that institutional effort will be doubled to let the Good Governance Legacy be continuous. ### (Andyleen C. Feje)
