Two Kalinga towns get 4Ps coverage

By Gigi Dumallig

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Two more towns in this province were recently included in the list of beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a comprehensive poverty alleviation program of the Philippine Government.

Judith Puday of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) said the latest recipients in Kalinga are the city government of Tabuk and the municipality of Rizal. Beneficiaries will be receiving their 4Ps Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) by 2012.

Based on the list, Tabuk City has at least 4,982 family beneficiaries while 833 were listed from Rizal, Kalinga.

Based on records of DSWD-CAR, the province had been selected as a beneficiary of the program based on the 2006 Philippine Poverty Statistics of the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) which revealed that Kalinga has a 45.8% poverty incidence with a magnitude of 16,113 poor families.

Initially, the 2003 Small Area Estimates (SAE) of the NSCB selected four municipalities in the province having the highest poverty incidence. These were the municipalities of Lubuagan with 50.37% poverty incidence; Pasil with 70.01%; Tanudan with 88.08% and Tinglayan with 82.14%. The identified recipients received their CCT in 2009.

In 2011 when the government has included an additional 1.3 million beneficiaries in the program, the municipalities of Balbalan and Pinukpuk were likewise included having a poverty incidence of 49.54% and 52.16%, respectively based on the NSCB 2003 SAE data.

At present at least 5,016 households from the six municipalities are benefiting from the program which is giving focus on building human capital among poor families nationwide.

This developmental program uses CCT to chronically poor eligible households on condition that lactating or pregnant mothers and young children avail of preventive health care services of the government and that school-aged children regularly attend school.

With the financial assistance being delivered directly to the recipients, the local government units and key agencies are likewise expected to ensure that the basic social and health services expected to realize the goals of the 4Ps program. --SCA GGD PIA Kalinga