DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman addresses the local chief executives of Region VIII during the MOA Signing for additional towns under the Pantawid Pamilya.
DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman addresses the local chief executives of Region VIII during the MOA Signing for additional towns under the Pantawid Pamilya.

Eight more towns in Region VIII with 6,523 households were added to the list of beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program bringing the total number of beneficiaries in the region to 251,652.  These are the towns of Tunga, and Isabel in Leyte: Anahawan and Padre Burgos of Southern Leyte; Guiuan, Mercedes, Lawaan, and Sulat of Eastern Samar.

This was learned during the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing recently held in Tacloban City between the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the local chief executives of the eight towns in the region.

DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman, who witnessed the said MOA signing, stressed in her message that the DSWD is presently assessing family-beneficiaries whether they still belong to the survival stage or have moved to subsistence or self-sufficiency level.  The Secretary added that the first set of beneficiaries identified in 2008 will be transitioning into self-sufficiency by the end of 2013 through the Convergence Strategy.

With the inclusion of the eight towns, the DSWD has now covered all the 136 cities and municipalities of the six provinces in the region. ###