PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Mimaropa is set to pay the cash grants for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries, whose mode of payment is through partner conduits in May 2018.
This includes cash grants under Period 6 (January 2018) and the PHP2,400 (PHP200 per month) grants under the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT), said a statement released by Maria Alyssa Esguerra of DSWD MImaropa.
“The December 2017 cash grants will not be included in the scheduled payout due to insufficient funds because of increased compliance. Additional funds are now being requested from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM),” the statement disclosed.
Palawan 4Ps beneficiaries are among those who will receive their conditional cash grants.
The UCT program covers all beneficiaries who are active and was able to claim for Period 4 (August to September 2017). A total of 182,220 beneficiaries under the Regular Conditional Cash Transfer (RCCT) and Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) without cash cards, will be able to receive the UCT grants on the scheduled payout.
Meanwhile, only 176,702 beneficiaries compliant with the program’s conditions for January 2018 will receive their grants for the said month.
The synchronization arrangement for the payout for the regular cash transfer of the 4Ps and 2018 UCT has caused the delayed payment through OTC transactions.
DSWD Field Office MIMAROPA has already paid 15,382 Pantawid households with cash cards last March 2018 covering Period 6 and UCCT grants.
The UCT is a component of the national government’s Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) program that aims to assist indigent Filipinos, who will be affected by rising prices because of the implementation of the new tax reform program.
As stipulated in the TRAIN Act, DSWD will implement the UCT scheme for three years. It will release PHP2,400 in 2018 and a total of PHP3,600 (PHP300 per month) in 2019 and in 2020.
About PHP24 billion has been earmarked for the 2018 UCT implementation in the FY 2018 GAA.
The statement further said that included in the 10 million UCT beneficiaries are three million indigent senior citizens nationwide, who are also beneficiaries of the Social Pension Program (SPP) being implemented with the help of the Local Government Units (LGUs) and Special Disbursing Officers (SDOs).
The remaining 2.6 million households nationwide will be selected from the Listahanan or National Household Targeting System (NHTS-PR), which will go through validation. In MIMAROPA, there are 92,790 target households to be validated. (Celeste Anna Formoso/PNA)
