With government cash doles, poor buy Christmas gifts

No matter how measly, the cash doles from the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) have brought Christmas joy to the poor in Quezon.

“My family can use it to buy new clothes, slippers for the kids, and the rest for special food,” an old woman resident of Barangay Cagsiay III in Mauban town said in an interview. She declined to identify herself for fear that she may be stricken off the list of program beneficiaries.

The woman admitted though that she was going to use the cash, ranging from P800 to P1,400 a month, for purposes other than health and education.

The 4Ps is a government program that offers the poorest of the poor monthly doles of P500 for health and P300 for the education of every child below 14 years old, not exceeding three children per family. A beneficiary family receives an average of P1,400 a month.

Last week, recipients from the coastal town of Mauban formed a long line on the sidewalks of Quezon Avenue in Lucena City, waiting for the branch of Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) to open and start transacting. Some sat on the sidewalk gutters while others braced themselves on the shoulders of their companions for a quick nap.

“Why do we still have to come here in Lucena and spend for transportation when the bank tellers had already delivered to us the money in Mauban before?” one of them wondered. The beneficiaries spend P160 each for fare.

According to Joy Rodil, social welfare officer from Mauban, more than 3,000 residents are listed 4Ps beneficiaries. She said LBP personnel delivered the money to them in their first distribution of the financial assistance a few months ago.

“But LBP requested us this time that the recipients should come to Lucena to collect the money because they are now too busy,” Rodil explained over the phone.

Salvacion Fortuna, another resident of Cagsiay III, said it would take one hour to travel from their place to Lucena.

The waiting recipients were overheard talking on what bargain items to buy from the two shopping malls in the city. They do not have ATM (automated teller machine) cards but only acknowledgement receipts issued by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The receipts, which must be presented to the bank teller along with identification cards issued by their municipal social welfare office, contain personal information and the amount of cash they are to get.

Fortuna’s receipt showed that she was to receive P2,800 for two months’ assistance.