Gov’t’s cash-for-school grants start in June

MANILA, Philippines—Just in time for the opening of classes next week, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has announced that the distribution of grants to beneficiaries in provinces included in the so-called expansion areas of the government’s conditional cash transfer program will start in June.

The program, called the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), is aimed at encouraging very poor families to keep their children in school and take them to health centers regularly in exchange for a monthly cash allowance.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was expected to witness Friday the signing of a memorandum agreement for the inclusion of 22 municipalities and two cities in Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte in the cash transfer program.

Last Thursday, local chief executives of one city and 68 municipalities signed a similar agreement for inclusion in the program.

17 provinces

Sorsogon, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Palawan, Masbate, Aklan, Samar, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Sulu were among the 17 provinces that signed agreements last Thursday.

Beneficiaries from these expansion areas will start getting their grants this June, said Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral in a statement.

The 4Ps program was started in late 2007 as a pilot project covering seven provinces and two cities in Metro Manila, Pasay and Caloocan.

According to the DSWD, to date more than P1.6 billion worth of cash grants have been distributed to 368,000 households from 239 municipalities and 43 provinces.

P10-B budget

Cabral said the President has approved a P10-billion budget for the program’s implementation this year.

The identification of the rest of the projected 700,000 households in the expansion areas will be completed by the end of May, the DSWD said.

The DSWD has refused to describe the 4Ps program as a “dole-out.”

It said it is a poverty reduction strategy of the government that “invests in human capital,” and is patterned after the conditional cash transfer program that the World Bank has employed in Latin America and Africa.

The poorest families which are the program’s beneficiaries are determined through a survey conducted by the DSWD.

A qualified family can receive cash grants amounting to P6,000 a year, or P500 a month per household for health and nutrition expenses; and P3,000 for one school year, or P300 a month for 10 months per child for educational expenses.

A household with three qualified children can have a subsidy of P1,400 a month, or P15,000 annually, as long as it complies with the program’s conditions.

Conditions for grantees

The DSWD has set the following conditions for the cash transfer:

• Pregnant women must get prenatal care starting in the first trimester; child birth must be attended by a skilled health professional and be followed by postnatal care.

• Parents must attend family planning sessions, mother’s classes or effective parenting seminars.

• Children, aged zero to five, must be brought to health centers for regular checkups and vaccinations.

• Children, aged 3 to 5, must be sent to daycare or preschool at least 85 percent of the time.

• Children, aged 6 to 14, must be in class at least 85 percent of the time.

Grant for 5 years

The cash grants may be withdrawn from an ATM (automated teller machine) which the DSWD will entrust to the “most responsible member” of the family.

Families are eligible to receive the grant for a maximum of five years.

The grant can be canceled at any time if the conditions are not followed. –Nikko Dizon, Philippine Daily Inquirer