An amount of P276,854,400 have been released to 115,356 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries in Bicol for the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) Program of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries with land bank cash cards are the first to receive the UCT assistance of P2,400 (P200 per month) for the whole year (2018). The remaining 258,215 pantawid pamilya beneficiaries of which 252,552 beneficiaries come from Regular Pantawid Pamilya and 5,663 beneficiaries come from Modified Conditional Cash Transfer without cash cards will receive the UCT grants on April 2018 through partner conduits.

UCT is a component of the national government’s Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) program that aims to assist indigent Filipinos that will be affected by the rising prices because of the implementation of the new tax reform program.

As stipulated in the TRAIN act, DSWD is responsible for the implementation the UCT scheme for three years.

For this year 2018, an amount of P2,400 (P200 per month) will be released. For 2019 and 2020 an amount of P3,600 (P300 per month) will be provided to beneficiaries of UCT.

Among the beneficiaries of UCT in the Philippines, are 4.4 million Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, three million indigent senior citizens of Social Pension Program and 2.6 million households selected from the Listahanan or National Household Targeting System (NHTS-PR) which will undergo through validation process.

According to Regional Director Arnel B. Garcia, the validation process of Listahanan is expected to last for three months and the final list of beneficiaries are targeted to be out by the end of May. “Thus, distribution of the UCT assistance for Listahanan are targeted to be done by June 2018,” he explained.

One of the Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries who received the cash grant for UCT is thirty-eight year old Cherry Escario of Busay, Daraga, Albay. “Hindi po namin ito inaasahan, pero maraming maraming salamat po. Gagraduate na po ang anak ko ngayon na Marso at malaki po itong tulong sa amin, lalo na sa pag-paaral ng tatlo ko pong anak,” she said.***GLindio,IO-4Ps