After 4 months delay in pay-out to the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program beneficiaries, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will conduct a series of disbursement activities in Zamboanga Peninsula.

The pay-out is set to be conducted from August 29 until September 22 this year. This will cover periods 1 and 2 or 4 months equivalent of cash grant.

A total amount of 1,331,901,900 pesos will be disbursed to 481,178 households who have been compliant to the program’s conditionalities in the past 4 months to include some members of the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) program and retro payments.

However, the pay-out does not cover Isabela City due to its on-going bidding for the conduit that will facilitate the pay-out in areas of the mentioned city.

It can be recalled that the pay-out for the Over-The-Counter (OTC) has been delayed for a few months while the beneficiaries who hold ATM cards continuously enjoy their grants which triggered alarm for the beneficiaries in OTC.

“The pay-out activities are done through our conduit and LandBank. It was due to it that we had delays in our pay-out. However, we assure the beneficiaries that they will definitely receive their grants for the months that they have complied with the conditionalities,” said DSWD-9 Regional Director, Atty. Araceli F. Solamillo.

Solamillo added that DSWD continuously improves its implementation of the program to serve its clients better.

Pantawid Pamilya is only one of the poverty reduction strategies of the national government implemented by the DSWD which focuses on human capital investment through provision of education and health cash grants including rice subsidy to eligible poor households with children 0-18 years old with the primary aim to break the inter-generational poverty cycle.