91.3% of Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries in Eastern Visayas are women

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
March 30, 2012

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Women comprise 91.3 percent of the 165,136 beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, in Eastern Visayas in 2011.

This was disclosed by the National Statistical Coordination Board Region 8 Coordinator Evangeline Paran who said that men accounted for only 8.7 percent.

Hence, 9 out of 10 beneficiaries of 4Ps in the Region are women, Director Paran said adding that all provinces in the Region exhibited similar trend.

In the province of Leyte, of the total 74,261 household beneficiaries, a total of 68,456 were women while 5,805 were men. In Biliran, of the total 3,287 household beneficiaries, 3,077 were women while 210 were men. In Southern Leyte, of the total 2,128 household beneficiaries, 1,941 were women while 187 were men.

Moreover, in the province of Samar, of the total 45,922 household beneficiaries, 42,731were women while 3,191 were men. Eastern Samar had 5,423 household beneficiaries; 5,028 were women while 395 were men. Of the 34,115 Northern Samar, 29,527 were women while 4,588 were men.

The implementing agency of 4Ps, the Department of Social Welfare and Development has an answer to the trend.

According to DSWD, women were chosen as household beneficiaries over men because the monthly cash grant is usually given to the most responsible member of the household, Director Paran said.

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, also known as Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), is a poverty reduction program of the government which provides cash assistance to poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education status, particularly of children aged 0-14 years old.

A household that has children 0-14 years old and/or has a pregnant woman at the time of assessment is one of the criteria in the selection of beneficiaries.

The Regional NCMB observed that the number of pregnant women served totaled 4,862 in 2011 and almost half or 49.6% came from the province of Leyte. One of the conditionalities of 4Ps is that pregnant women must avail of pre-and post-natal care and be attended by a trained health professional during childbirth.

Meanwhile, the number of schoolchildren beneficiaries reached 412,964. There were more boys (213,810) than girls (199,154) enrolled in daycare, elementary and high school.