About 7.2 million children beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, the country’s conditional cash transfer program, are among the more than 21 million pre-schoolers, elementary and high school students who trooped to public schools during the opening of classes on June 3. The number of enrollees increased by 200,000 from last year’s 7 million children.
Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman is pleased that the program has sent this number of children to school saying that these children now have higher chances of having a better future than their parents. “I hope they remain compliant to the conditions of the program to be able to continue their studies,” Secretary Soliman said.
The Pantawid Pamilya provides educational grants of P900.00 per month for a family with three qualified children provided they comply with the conditions of attending school at least 85% of the time or an average of only three absences per month.
For the school year 2012-2013, approximately 98% of the school children beneficiaries attended school at least 85% of the time.
“It is important that the household-beneficiaries stay in the program by continuing to comply with its conditions otherwise they will be removed as beneficiaries. We do not want them to waste the opportunity to have proper education, improved health and better quality of life”, Secretary Soliman added.
As of May 29, 2013, the Pantawid Pamilya is being implemented in all 1,627 cities and municipalities in 79 provinces in all 17 regions where a total of 3,912,718 households are already enrolled exceeding the target of 3,809,769 for 2013. Of the total
households, 41.75% or 1,633,712 come from Luzon while 37.81% or 1,479,399 and 20.44 % 799, 607 are from Mindanao and Visayas, respectively.
The Pantawid Pamilya is a human development program of the national government. It is also a social protection strategy that invests in the health and education of poor children, 0-14 years old.
Pantawid Pamilya is one of the flagship programs of the DSWD. ###
