As part of its Social Support Intervention (SSI), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) track under the country’s conditional cash transfer program popularly known as 4Ps has distributed livelihood kits to members of the Indigenous People groups in the municipality of Liloy, Zamboanga Del Norte.

Out of the 37 barangays in the said municipality, 5 barangays have become recipients of the SSI that totals to 73 family beneficiaries among the various IP associations. The barangay recipients include barangay Baybay, barangay La Libertad, barangay Comunal, barangay Mabuhay, and barangay Tapican.

DSWD-9 Regional Director, Atty. Sittie Raifah M. Pamaloy-Hassan explains that the aim of providing SSI to the IP groups is to uplift the socio-economic status of the MCCT beneficiaries through services such as Cash For Work (CFW), livelihood assistance, grassroots organizing activities, family camp, and rent subsidy for Homeless Street Families (HSF) and IP Itinerant beneficiaries.

The DSWD provides cash aid and livelihood assistance to the IPs, especially those living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) through its Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program. As of today, MCCT covers approximately 35% or 95,653 of the total number of active 4Ps beneficiaries in the region.

Apple Sandee Samla, 29, a member of the Kalibugan tribe, expresses her gratitude for being part of the LIBBAY (La Libertad and Baybay) IPs Association and for being a recipient of such assistance from the 4Ps-MCCT.

“I am so grateful to receive the livelihood kit which will definitely help my family’s livelihood for additional income,” Samla said.

MCCT is a sub-component of the 4Ps which uses a modified approach in implementing the conditional cash transfer program for poor families, including homeless street families (HSF), IPs, and Families in Need of Special Protection.