DSWD ups cash transfer coverage in Cordillera

By Joseph B Zambrano

BAGUIO CITY -- The Department of  Social Welfare and Development in the  Cordillera  is  expanding  coverage of its  Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) to include   families in need of special protection  to provide and strengthen the safety, protection, and development of children in difficult circumstances.

DSWD regional director Leonardo C. Reynoso, said the modified CCT will cover   street children including  homeless families, indigenous people’s migrant families, families with children with disabilities, families of child laborers, displaced families due to man-made and natural disasters, and other families in need of special protection.

Baguio City,  a highly urbanized city, is a target area of the  modified   program  including  mining areas in the region.

The modified Pantawid Pamilya expansion will be implemented in collaboration with civil society organizations operating in the Cordillera, Reynoso said.

Records show that the regular CCT program covers 54,400 households in the Cordillera and with the modified CCT, additional 1,000 households  allotted for Baguio City.

The CCT  is a rights-based program that focuses on human capital investment through provision of health and education cash grants to eligible poor households. It  is one of the poverty reduction strategies   of  government   to enable poor households to meet certain human development goals  to  break  the vicious  cycle of poverty.