A synchronized media forum is set to be conducted across the country on October 19, Friday. This is relative to the household beneficiaries who have voluntarily waived or exited from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program under the DSWD in Region IX.

The forum will focus on the gains and current situation of the program particularly on its beneficiaries and their reasons for waiving their membership and grants from the country’s conditional cash transfer program.

This year’s theme is Pagpapakilala at Pagkilala sa Natatanging Benepisyaryo ng Pantawid Pamilya.

DSWD, in coordination with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), invited approximately 30 media men in various platforms (print, radio, television, and internet) to attend the said forum. Waived households are also invited to provide testimonials and answer questions from the media pertaining to their experience as beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilya program.

“We are providing an avenue where our media partners can directly communicate with our beneficiaries and become witness of how the program has contributed to the transformation in the lives of the Pantawid households in the region,” DSWD-IX Regional Information Officer, Mr. Ivan Salvador said.

As of today, the department has accounted a total of 414 households in the region that have waived from the program since January 2018 up until October this year.

The media forum is in line with the observance of the International Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty.