Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has resumed the distribution of cash handouts to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the 16 towns and one city of Capiz province in Western Visayas.
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the cash handouts would be a great help to the beneficiaries in meeting their food and personal needs as they rebuild their lives after the destruction wrought by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”
The DSWD has allotted P77,069,900 for handouts to 36,432 households from September to October.
The compliance of 4Ps beneficiaries with the program’s conditions on education, health and attendance in family development sessions are the basis for the cash grants.
Capiz is one of the provinces devastated by Yolanda in Western Visayas. The DSWD office in the region reported that 133,626 houses in the province were damaged by the typhoon.
Pantawid Pamilya is a human development program of the national government that invests in the health and education of poor families, primarily of children 0-14 years old.
In Cateel, Davao Oriental, the DSWD, in partnership with the provincial governments of Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley, will turn over 1,266 permanent houses to families whose houses were totally damaged by Typhoon “Pablo” in December last year.
The houses were built through the DSWD Modified Shelter Assistance Program.
So far, the DSWD has built 742 houses in Banganga, Boston and Cateel as well as 524 in Compostela, New Bataan, Monkayo, Montevista and Laak in Compostela Valley.
Two weeks ago, the DSWD and the Davao Oriental provincial government led by Gov. Cora Malanyaon initially awarded titles and certificates of occupancy to 53 families in the newly created Better Living Village in Barangay Madre de Cacao in Cateel.
At the Dec. 4 commemoration of Typhoon Pablo, Malanyaon, talking to the survivors, said, “One year seemed too short to regain some semblance of [normality] and healing from our Pablo experience, yet we have done and achieved so much.”
“All these would not have been possible without the unstinting and dedicated support of our partner agencies, both national and international, government and private,” Malanyaon said.
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