DSWD, ARMM sign agreement on poverty-alleviation program

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) central office has signed with the new leadership of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) a memorandum of agreement to ensure an intensified implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the poverty-laden ARMM communities.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Celia Yangco and acting regional Gov. Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong of ARMM signed the memorandum of agreement during their meeting in Manila together with officials from the foreign donor-organizations and institutions and executives of the regional autonomous government.

In her brief speech, Yangco said the signing of the agreement was meant to replicate, if not enhance, in the autonomous region the 4Ps implementation mode and ensure effective poverty-alleviation efforts especially in the conflict areas of ARMM.

The program, one of the Arroyo administration’s major anti-poverty interventions, is a five-year program launched in 2008 through the DSWD amid the global economic meltdown.

It is funded by international donors including American Development Fund, World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, United Nations Children’s Fund and United Nations Population Fund, whose officials in the country attended the foreign donors’ meeting with ARMM officials.

It provides small cash grants to identified extremely poor families with the condition that the money will be spent for health and education of their children particularly from 0 to 14 years of age.

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary Pombaen Kader of the DSWD-ARMM said the program has targeted 92,000 families in the region, each to receive P1,400 monthly subsidy for five years for health services and education of three children.

Each child will have P300 earmarked for education or a total of P900 for the three children while the P500 will be used for the family’s basic health service, Kader added. –JULMUNIR I. JANNARAL Correspondent, MAnila Times