Gov’t sets 5-year job program

MANILA, Philippines – The government will launch tomorrow a five-year program aimed at providing guaranteed employment to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), along with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), will jointly implement the “Trabahong Lansangan ng Programang Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino.”

DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman and DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson will lead the launching of the project at the Baseco compound covered court in Barangay 649, District 5, in Tondo, Manila.

“The joint project is in line with DSWD’s convergence strategy to provide livelihood assistance and job opportunities to CCT households that will enable them to access social services and obtain their basic needs even after they receive cash assistance as CCT beneficiaries,” Soliman said.

During the launch, Soliman and Singson will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which provides that DPWH will employ CCT beneficiaries nationwide for its unskilled labor needs beginning this year until 2016.

The beneficiaries will be employed in road maintenance, declogging of drainage laterals, and street sweeping, Soliman said.

For 2011, she said some 2,155 Pantawid Pamilya households will be hired under the DSWD and DPWH cooperation project for guaranteed employment.

Of these, about 400 beneficiaries will be hired by DPWH-National Capital Region.

Aside from the MOU signing, Soliman said two newly organized Self Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (SEA-K) associations in Tondo will receive livelihood capital assistance that will enable them to set up and manage micro-enterprises to augment their income.

A total of 61,920 CCT households will receive capital assistance by December 2011, the DSWD chief said.

“The livelihood assistance and guaranteed employment program for the CCT households is considered as the exit strategy for the beneficiaries, from welfare assistance to development-oriented support,” Soliman said.

“Through the pioneering effort of DPWH to support CCT beneficiaries, DSWD will continue to establish partnerships with government agencies and the private sector for the livelihood and employment needs of the CCT beneficiaries,” she added.

‘Ghost’ beneficiaries

Meanwhile, in Isabela, only 26 of the 176 qualified drivers who enlisted themselves to avail of the fuel subsidy from the administration’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program have gotten their automatic teller machine (ATM) cards in Santiago City, according to Arturo Guzman, supply officer of the Land Transportation Office here.

In his statement aired by a local radio station, Guzman said that the 150 remaining beneficiaries have yet to show up at their office.

But transport groups suspect that the “pasada cards” for jeepney drivers could have been diverted to a syndicate that gets the intended subsidy through fictitious beneficiaries endorsed to the LTO. –-Helen Flores (The Philippine Star) with Raymund Catindig