The government is appealing to the community to help the Department of Social Welfare and Development locate potential beneficiaries of the anti-poverty program, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, in Negros Oriental.

DSWD Region 7 director, Evelyn Macapobre, said that, there are at least 122 potential beneficiaries to the program who have not been validated in Amlan and Sibulan towns.

Mayors Bentham dela Cruz of Amlan and Marcela Bartoces of Sibulan signed the program agreement with DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman early this week in the province, to benefit 1,705 indigent families in their towns.

The DSWD, however, said that, despite the increased coverage in Negros Oriental, several families targeted for the program cannot be located anymore, either due to relocation, disinterest, or even misinformation. The beneficiaries had been identified through the National Housing Target System for Poverty Reduction a few years back.

Soliman said that by 2013, funding for the 4Ps implementation in Negros Oriental will be P1,193,396,000, with 111,014 households benefiting.

The growing number is due to the partner-beneficiary scheme, where households within the range of 25 percent of the population below the poverty line are now enrolled in the 4P. The initial scheme targeted only those belonging to 50 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold, she added.

There are now 61,298 family-beneficiaries enrolled in the program from all the towns and cities of the province.*JFP

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