Newsbriefs

Cash aid program

THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Cebu City beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program went down after they went above the age requirement.

“Beneficiaries should be 14 years old only,” Tears Lim of the city’s DSWD office said yesterday.

She said they have delisted 130 out of the 4,372 beneficiaries for various reasons.

“In Cebu City, there are those who sold and pawned their cash aid cards for P200 to P500. We caught two families doing this,” she said.

Lim said first time violators will be issued warnings but subsequent violations will result in their delisting.

Despite this, the DSWD seeks to expand the program to cover more beneficiaries.

Under the program, P500 will be given to families for medical assistance and P300 for education of their kids every month.

Delia Kiampo, supervisor of the Department of Education in Cebu City, said the program helped boost school attendance by 5,122 students in the elementary grades for this school year. Correspondent Rhea Ruth V. Rosell

Vendors transfer

ONLY 600 out of 900 vendors will transfer to the new market in Mandaue City at the North Reclamation Area in sitio Tribunal, barangay Centro, on the first week of November.

Mandaue City market administrator Musolini Soliva said the vendors paid the stall rentals on time in the old public market and are city residents.

The vendors agreed to transfer after the City Engineer’s Office declared that the old public market was unsafe.

Soliva said the new market can still accommodate more vendors but they will have to wait pending the approval of the new market code from the City Council.

The market code ordinance is still on first reading and a public hearing on the new market rate will be conducted today at the sports complex. The new market can house 1,408 stalls. Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos