Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential candidate Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. Tuesday pressed for the expansion of the government's "conditional cash transfer" program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to the impoverished province of Maguindanao and other critical areas in Mindanao region to prevent its citizens from falling prey to the influence of political warlords.
According to Teodoro, the expansion of the “conditional cash transfer” program in poverty-stricken areas like Maguindanao will help the government implement educational and socio-economic programs for the province now gripped with political tension following the massacre incident last Nov. 23.
Administered by the DSWD under Secretary Esperanza Cabral, the "Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program" or 4Ps scheme provides family-beneficiaries a monthly P1,500 cash allowance to buy food and school materials for their children.
The 4Ps program is being undertaken in several poor areas in Luzon and Visayas areas as supervised by the DSWD.
“If we expand the 4Ps program in Maguindanao and many poor communities of Mindanao, I have no doubt that the literacy rate will skyrocket and the incidence of hunger in the region will be reduced,” Teodoro said after his third visit to Maguindanao recently.
Teodoro noted that many Maguindanao children drop out or not go to school at all because of lack of money for school items and "baon." At an early age, many of them were forced to work as private armies of political warlords who later gain their loyalty.
http://gibo.ph/updatefull.aspx?key=w7CbM7VyDJrDAXooG50dvZAro4QCejyhX5xdOKDkp9SyRpd0aH0kVA==
Source: Manila Bulletin
Posted: 12/23/2009
Follow us on: