ZAMBOANGA CITY – The immediate families of cops and soldiers who were killed or wounded in action are now entitled to receive the conditional cash grants of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
This means that families of cops and solidiers killed or wounded in the Mamasapano encounter in January 2015 and the Marawi clash in May 2017 can now avail this service, which will be categorized as Modified Cash Transfer, according to Evangeline Pioquita, the division chief promotions services of the Department of Social Welfare and Development Office in Western Mindanao.
“This is the first time we include the KIA (killed in action) and the WIA (wounded in action) in this program, they can avail the same benefits what the 4Ps families get,” she said.
She explained that orphans and widows of soldiers and cops have been receiving financial assistance from their office but they were categorized as livelihood assistance and the EAICS or Enhanced Aids to Individual in Crisis Situations.
“If a household is qualified, we can enroll them under 4Ps under MCT and there are 53 families that are about to receive this assistance, this quarter,” Pioquita said.
The 53 families from the different areas in Western Mindanao “include families whose husband fought during the Mamasapano Marawi siege and this program was suggested by the Office of the President Central Office including the list of families who will get these services.”
The grade school children of slain or wounded state forces will receive P300 monthly while high school students will receive P500, plus a rice subsidy of P600 and a health allowance of P500.
“Regardless of their economic status, they are entitled of this service, but some families whose husbands were officers, they already declined this 4Ps,” Pioquita said.
Merlyn Gamutan, widow of Police Senior Inspector Joey Gamutan, told the Inquirer that she has yet to receive any notification from the DSWD about the latest financial assistance.
“If that is true, we have to be included in the list. It’s a big help for me, especially for my children, its an additional support to our daily expenses because all the prices went up,” Gamutan said.
She lamented that they have not received the promised second tranche of DSWD financial aid in 2015 amounting to P100,000.
The amount was supposedly a form of livelihood assistance to the families of Special Action Force members who perished in Mamasapano.
“We have submitted all the necessary receipts they requested from us, but they never released the funds,” Gamutan said. /ee