New system devised to ensure only 4Ps beneficiaries get cash grant

By Aurora J. Casimpan

Saturday 25th of August 2012

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, August 25 (PIA) -- The top official of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Eastern Visayas has said that a new system has been devised to improve the modes of releasing the cash aid and the recording data of the beneficiaries of the government’s poverty alleviation program.

DSWD Regional Director Leticia Diokno said the new biometrics system devised in partnership with the LGU-Leyte through its Income Opportunities through Technology Program (ICOT-P) has undergone a mock test and will be launched later this month in Matag-ob, Leyte.

Should the system be successful after its pilot use, the same system will be implemented in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said Diokno.

The biometric system was devised in the light of field assessment that showed that some project beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) do not get the cash grants as loan sharks withdraw the cash aids of said 4Ps beneficiaries.

The new biometric system will ensure that target beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) or the 4Ps will get the cash grant. (PIA-8)