“The year 2013 has been an exhilarating year which left us breathless but we stepped up to the challenge.”
This was the gist of the New Year message of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman.
“We responded with the best of our knowledge and experience as we began the year stepping up the work in Typhoon Pablo-stricken areas and responding to the different disasters namely: the Sabah crisis, ‘Habagat’ (or monsoon rains), ‘Labuyo,’ Zamboanga siege, ‘Santi,’ the 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Bohol, and the fury of Yolanda.”
“As each event unfolded, the practices and systems we had in place were put to the test and we had to develop new strategies and tactics to respond to the different disasters since the nature and magnitude kept intensifying,” the Secretary expounded.
Sec. Soliman commended the men and women of the Department who continued to walk the extra mile in rendering matapat, mahusay at magiliw na paglilingkod to victims of disasters, and to vulnerable individuals, families, and communities.
Disaster response
As of December 27, DSWD provided more than a billion worth of assistance to disaster victims, including the survivors of ‘Habagat’ which plagued NCR (P25.24 million), ‘Santi’ which lashed Region 3 in September (P22.14 million), the Zamboanga armed conflict (P278.77 million), earthquake in Central Visayas (P96.87 million), and Typhoon Yolanda which devastated the Visayas region on November 8 (P1.17 billion).
This assistance includes relief, early recovery, and rehabilitation efforts.
Pro-poor programs
While the Department dealt with a number of disasters of huge proportions this year, it did not lose track of its basic programs.
The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is already on its fifth year of implementation.
As of November 27, the program is being implemented in all 1,627 cities and municipalities in 79 provinces in 17 Regions.
It provides education and health cash grants of as much as P1,400 to a family with three qualified children provided they comply with the conditions of sending them to school and in health centers for check-up, and attending Family Development Sessions.
A total of 3,839,259 households are covered by the regular Pantawid Pamilya program while 94,247 are covered by Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT). The MCCT targets Families in Need of Special Protection (FNSP), Homeless Street Families (HSF) and Extended Age Coverage Program (EAP) for Children 15-17 years old.
The total cash grants paid to eligible and compliant beneficiaries from January to November is P33,854,742,700. Of this, P16,354,685,600 was for education and P17,500,057,100 was for health.
Community-driven development
The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) which uses the community-driven development (CDD) approach to reduce poverty continues to fund community projects.
Kalahi-CIDSS expanded its coverage to reach up to 50% of poorest municipalities in targeted provinces, utilizing the Additional Financing (AF) of the World Bank (WB) and a grant from the United States’ Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
To date, both projects have already covered 7,593 barangays in 328 municipalities in 48 poorest provinces in the country.
As of September, AF and MCC funded a total of 4,042 community sub-projects amounting to P4.698 billion that will benefit approximately 928,377 households.
Livelihood
On the other hand, the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) continues to provide entrepreneurial and employment opportunities to the poor, mostly Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries.
From January to November, some 144,115 Pantawid Pamilya households were served through the Micro-enterprise Development Track. A total of P562,152,738.00 was disbursed from the Capital Seed Fund as non-interest and non-collateral loans for the enterprises of these families.
Likewise, some 17,772 non-Pantawid Pamilya households were served through the Micro-enterprise Development Track. They have received P96,706,094 from the Capital Seed Fund as non-interest and non-collateral loans for their enterprises.
A total of 12,329 households were provided employment.
Social pension for seniors
The DSWD likewise continues the implementation of its Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens in all the regions of the country.
The program covers 77 years old and above who are frail, sickly, or has disability; who are not receiving pension; and have no permanent source of income or regular support from their relatives.
As of December 27, some 254,175 senior citizens have received their monthly stipend worth P500.
The program has a budget of P1.4B for 2013 and P3.1B for 2014 .
Feeding program
For the children enrolled in day cares and supervised play session, DSWD provides food supplementation to improve and sustain their nutritional status.
This comes in the form of hot meals to be served during break or snack time in the morning or afternoon session.
The feeding program is managed by parents based on a prepared meal cycle using available indigenous food supplies.
Children beneficiaries will be weighed at the start of the feeding and three months thereafter. After the completion of 120 feeding days, the improvement and sustenance in their nutritional status will be determined.
The actual start of feeding started in June, in time for the start of the school year.
For 2013-2014, a total of 1,451,655 children out of 1,778,274 were already served as of December.
Victims of trafficking
The Department gives a comprehensive package of programs and services to enhance the psychosocial, social and economic needs of victims of trafficking. It is implemented in coordination with other concerned agencies such as the Department of Justice.
This includes provision of financial assistance while awaiting employment or while undergoing training, and of capital assistance; referral to employers and/or business partners; auxiliary services such as board and lodging, documentation, and other incidental expenses; and, DNA testing if needed.
The DSWD also offers temporary shelter to victim-survivors to help them cope with their traumatic experiences.
As of November 30, a total of 1,228 human trafficking cases (338 males and 890 females) have been served. Region VII has the highest number of reported cases with 12.7%, and CAR the lowest with 1.22%.
Forced labor as a purpose for trafficking ranked the highest with 419 cases or 34.12 %, while sexual exploitation ranked next with 236 or 19.21%.
On all cases, more females (72.48%) than males (27.52%) become victims of trafficking.
Aid for street children, street families
The DSWD likewise provides financial and technical support, in partnership with the local government units (LGUs), for the implementation of comprehensive program for this sector including their families.
In 2013, some 1,087 street children were provided with educational assistance. A total of 635 were served in 33 activity centers where they participated in literacy program, values formation, recreational skills building and orientation on the rights of the child.
Likewise, 200 street adults were provided with cash-for-work assistance in the amount of P303 pesos per day as sweepers, park patrol and greeters. Most of them are now renting their houses and living with their families.
Some 214 families have undergone skills training on dishwashing, power soap making, jewelry and beads making, and throw pillow making, in coordination with LGUs. Of this, 165 were provided with capital assistance.
Housing for informal settlers
For this year, DSWD received P374.4 million for the implementation of the Interim Shelter Fund for Informal Settler Families. The amount covers the necessary allocations for the subsidies, as well as the fund requirement for the mobilization cost of the project.
The program seeks to benefit 16,695 families validated as informal settlers.
As of December 6, some 1,232 families have been resettled. These families came from San Juan City (San Juan River), Quezon City (Tullahan River), Pasay City (Maricaban Creek and Tripa de Gallina), and Manila (Pasig River).
The resettlement sites are in Barangay Muzon, San Jose del Monte Heights, Bulacan; Southville Phase 3 Brgy. Aguado Trece Martires City Cavite; and Golden Horizon, Brgy. Hugo Perez, Trece Martires City, Cavite.
Priorities for 2014
Sec. Soliman is hopeful that 2014 is even more exciting with the unfolding of many programs to empower and improve lives of Filipinos.
The Department will expand and strengthen its core poverty-reduction programs.
Pantawid Pamilya will cover all eligible poor households from the database of the poor and sustain the gains of the program by brokering access of graduated set 1 beneficiaries to other social protection services particularly sustainable livelihood opportunities.
Kalahi-CIDSS will cover an additional 323,325 households in 10,714 barangays in 486 poor municipalities nationwide, and facilitate environmental protection through Community Driven Development (CDD) by implementing a CDD Modality for ARMM and Bangsamoro in cooperation with the Regional Government Unit and DSWD-ARMM.
The Micro-Enterprise Development and Guaranteed Employment Tracks will serve 405,902 Set 3 Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries and cover an additional 23,660 beneficiaries.
It also seeks to reduce the number of street children/families by 80% in Highly Urbanized Cities (HUCs), capacitate partners to reach more victims of trafficking, locally and globally
It will provide food supplementation to 2,006,549 children in day care centers and supervised neighborhood play and to fully implement the new Guidelines in the Accreditation of Day Care Service.
In an effort to help more seniors, DSWD will expand the Social Pension to cover additional 46,954 beneficiaries and lower age category to 70.
It also hopes to provide shelter assistance to 472 informal settler families living in danger areas and waterways of Metro Manila.
For 2014, the target number of Interim Shelter Assistance as per DILG is 26,000. And these ISFs will either be resettled or use the assistance as interim shelter (for renting) while their permanent housing units are under construction.
On the Estero project, to date, the model unit for Estero de San Miguel is already completed. Building of medium-rise buildings will soon rise that will benefit 160 informal settler families. For 2014, medium-rise buildings shall also rise in Estero de Quiapo, P. Casals, and San Sebastian.
For disaster response, DSWD will evaluate and enhance disaster risk reduction strategies, programs, services and partnerships to ensure readiness and achieve zero casualty in future calamities.
“As 2014 is the year of the wooden horse, we will be galloping to positive change, institutionalizing reforms to make it irreversible. Tuloy-tuloy ang mahusay, matapat at magiliw na paglilingkod sa sambayanan,” Sec. Soliman ended. ###
