PIA Press Release
Saturday, January 07, 2012

'Pantawid Pamilya' rolls out in 32 new W Visayas areas

ILOILO CITY, Jan. 7 (PIA) -- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office 6 will implement the Pantawid Pamilya program in 32 new areas in Western Visayas, reaching an additional 108,775 potential household beneficiaries.

With the expansion, the program will now cover 118 out of the 133 municipalities in the region .

DSWD 6 Pantawid Pamilya Program Information Officer Alma Joronadal said the 32 new areas include the 10 municipalities in the province of Capiz covered by the Set 4 E implementation and the 22 others from the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Guimaras and Iloilo covered by the Set 5 implementation of the program designed to improve the nutrition, education and health of poor families with 0-14 years old children.

The program intends as well to address the country’s Millennium Development Goals such as reducing extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health.

With the inclusion of Panitan, Roxas City, Pontevedra, Cuartero, Dao, Dumarao, Dumalag, Ivisan, Sigma and Mambusao in the Set 4 E implementation, the program now covers all the 17 municipalities of Capiz.

On the other hand, the 22 new areas in the region under the Set 5 implementation are the municipality of Lezo in Aklan; Hamtic, Pandan, Sibalom and Tobias Fornier in Antique; Jordan, Nueva Valencia in Guimaras; Badiangan, Barotac Nuevo, Cabatuan, Estancia, Mina, Tigbauan, Dingle, Dumangas, New Lucena, Pototan and Zarraga in Iloilo; and Talisay City, Victorias City, La Carlota, and Silay City in Negros Occidental.

Along with the expansion in the five provinces of the region, some 108,775 potential household beneficiaries will now be added in the region’s existing household grantees of 173, 669 in the Sets 1-4 implementation. Under the Sets 1-5 implementation, all in all the total household grantees in the region are expected to reach 282,444.

Joronadal said community assemblies or validation of beneficiaries were already completed in the following areas: Capiz as of December 14, 2011; Aklan as of December 15, 2011; Negros Occidental as of December 17, 2011; and Guimaras as of January 6, 2012.

On the other hand, the same activity is scheduled in the province of Antique and some towns in Iloilo this month.

As of December 12, 2011, a DSWD report said that Pantawid Pamilya is being implemented in 950 municipalities, 77 cities and 79 provinces in all regions nationwide covering almost 2.3 million poor households. The program targets to cover additional 700,000 households to complete the 3 million households by end of 2012. (JSC/LAF-PIA6 Iloilo)