South Cotabato’s poor get govt. aid

KORONADAL CITY – Poor families from South Cotabato province thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for distributing over P13 million worth of livelihood and financial aid during his recent visit here.

Duterte personally handed over the assistance to beneficiaries of the anti-poverty programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD).

Some 38 community organizations composed of about 1,000 poor families received checks for livelihood grants under the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) while 300 other poor households got their cash subsidies under the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) program.

Duterte urged the beneficiaries to use the grants properly, stressing that these were intended to make their lives better. “Let us be clear. These were not given to you so you can buy liquor, get into gambling, and buy drugs. We will not understand each other with that,” he said. “When you get home, give some to your children and buy them good food. Then use the rest for your daily needs.”

The event was also attended by Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Bautista, Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers Affairs and Muslim Concerns, Abdullah Mamao; South Cotabato Governor Daisy Fuentes, among others.

Zorahayda Taha, DSWD regional director, said the SLP beneficiaries, composed of up to 30 members, received grants of between P300,000 and P450,000 as seed fund for their approved business enterprises. She said these include rice retailing, flower production, chicken egg production, cattle-raising, poultry production, bakery, and dressmaking.

Under the program, each individual member of the SLP group may avail of as much as P15,000 in livelihood grant.

For the UCT subsidy, Taha said the beneficiaries were from Barangays Poblacion, Lopez Jaena, and BS Aquino in Norala town – about 300 households, who received P2,400 each, after being chosen as representatives for the event.

The subsidy program was launched by the national government to help poor households cope with the impact of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law Emma Sorsano, president of an SLP association based in Lake Sebu town, expressed gratitude to the government for giving them the chance to eventually get out of poverty through their hog fattening project.

“We will do our best to grow and sustain this for our families and communities in Lake Sebu. It’s hard to earn money but it is harder to see our families starve and we can’t do anything about it,” she said. (Allen Estabillo)

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