GENERAL SANTOS CITY — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 12 (Soccsksargen) has begun processing the release of the additional cash subsidy under the national government’s unconditional cash transfer (UCT) program to some 146,264 poor households in the region.
Zorahayda Taha, DSWD-12 director, said Friday they are ready to dispatch teams to notify the inclusion of the eligible households into the subsidy program, which was set under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law.
“(The beneficiaries) will be notified through house-to-house visits starting next month,” Taha said.
She said they finalized the list of beneficiaries through a series of validations of identified poor households in Soccsksargen under the “Listahanan” or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction.
“Listahanan” is an information management system adopted by DSWD to properly document poor households nationwide.
Taha said the agency has identified a total of 191,243 poor households in the region’s four provinces and five cities based on the “Listahanan” database. Out of that number, some 146,264 households were found eligible for the UCT subsidy.
North Cotabato topped the list with 57,374 households, followed by Sultan Kudarat with 32,578, South Cotabato with 29,562, Sarangani with 20,608, and Cotabato City with 6,142.
The national government launched the subsidy program to assist poor households to cope with the implementation of the TRAIN Law.
Beneficiaries will receive monthly subsidies in the next three years, starting with PHP200 or a total of PHP2,400 for 2018, and PHP300 or PHP3,600 annually for 2019 and 2020.
Taha said the subsidy grants for the region have already been transferred to the Land Bank of the Philippines. She said they earlier met with managers of LandBank branches in the region to determine the available modes of payout for the subsidy. (Allen Estabillo/PNA)
