The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7) announced that it has P500 million in dispensable funds for 2016.
These funds will be distributed to 24,503 household-beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), said Jennifer Quimno, sustainable livelihood program regional coordinator.
Quimno said they are looking at 229 beneficiaries per municipality.
“The number of household beneficiaries in 2016 will be greater compared to this year, which is 21,109.”
Of the allotted funds for the program this year of P220 million, 94 percent has already been disbursed.
This year, another P164 million in grants was allotted for victims of supertyphoon Yolanda.
The grants were given to 15 Yolanda-affected municipalities and one city in northern Cebu: Bantayan, Bogo city, Borbon, Daanbantayan, Madridejos, Medellin, Pilar, Poro, San Franciso, San Remigio, Sogod, Sta. Fe, Tabogon, Tabuelan, Tuburan and Tudela.
A total of 21,000 household-beneficiaries were given grants for skills training, provision of seed capital fund, or cash for building livelihood activities.
“These were purely for reconstruction and rehabilitation funds for Yolanda victims. Beneficiaries of these funds were no longer included as beneficiaries for the Pantawid program,” Quimno said.
At present, only P4 million is left of the P164 million for disbursement.
“It takes a while for the funds to be disbursed since we gave the whole amount to the local government units for them to distribute to the beneficiary families,” she added.