4Ps now covers 80,801 beneficiaries in Cagayan Valley

By Oliver T. Baccay

Tuesday 14th of August 2012

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Aug. 14 (PIA) -- Household beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) has already scaled-up to 80, 801 in the whole Cagayan Valley region.

Latest data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) region 2 showed that in sets 1- 4, DSWD registered 24, 177 family beneficiaries and 56,624 households in set 5.

Arnel Garcia, regional director, said based on the analysis and assessment conducted by the program frontline implementers, of the total number of family beneficiaries in the region, there are 28,754 indigenous peoples (IPs) and 2,747 are Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) enlisted in the poverty alleviation program.

As to the number of children and pregnant women, 189, 684 children aged 0-14 were listed while 1, 803 are pregnant women.

With the convergence initiative in partnership with various agencies, Garcia said the beneficiaries are being assisted not only through the cash grants from the government but also in enhancing their livelihood skills and giving them other opportunities for additional sources of income to meet their daily needs.

Garcia said all towns in the provinces of Cagayan, Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya are already covered by the program while few towns in Isabela are not yet covered as well as the whole of Batanes province. The towns and province not covered by the program are enlisted as non-food poor areas in the region.

However, Garcia is optimistic that the uncovered areas in the province of Isabela as well as in Batanes will be covered if there will be set 6 of the program implementation. (OTB/PIA-2)