5T in Bantayan register for anti-poverty project

More than 5,000 poor households in Bantayan Island, Cebu have registered for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, the government’s conditional cash transfer program that is being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The DSWD region 7 personnel trooped to Bantayan on the first week of March to register more than 5,000 beneficiaries from smaller islands of barangays Lipayran, Luyong Baybay and Doong that compose the municipality of Bantayan.

Known to be a tropical paradise in Asia with fine white sands and crystal-clear blue water, this small haven of unsaturated beauty is indeed a come-on to most tourists. Little did they know of the poverty that dwells in the lives of these fisher folks or of the inter-generational poverty in the area.

Fishing, seaweed farming and fish drying are the only means of livelihood these folks have come to know as these were handed down from generation to generation until Pantawid Pamilya came.

The 4Ps aims to end the inter-generation cycle of poverty among poor households by investing on human capital through education and health.

It provides conditional cash grants to poor household with children 0-14 years old. Each household will be granted P500 for health and nutrition and P300 for the education of the children every month. A household with three qualified children can receive up to P1,400 monthly or P15,000 annually.

Together with nurses from the Department of Health’s RN Heals program, municipal social welfare development officer Dolly Derecho, the DSWD-7 personnel, introduced the program to the beneficiaries.

Erwin Ganar, a father of three children ages five, four and three of barangay Lipayran, said, “Considering the distance of our island barangay, I was not able to go to school. But now, it is very difficult for one to grow up illiterate. But I know that through this program, the government would give attention to our needs here in the island and there’s a big chance that my children can finish their studies.”