TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan (PIA) – – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has included 24 municipalities in Isabela under its Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program.
Regional Director Lucia Alan said, aside from San Mariano town which was one of the pilot areas nationwide for the project implementation, the 24 additional areas selected for the scale-up implementation were from areas considered as food-poor under the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition.
The additional towns are Alicia, Angadanan, Benito Soliven, Burgos, Cabagan, Cabatuan, Cordon, Dinapigue, Divilican, Echague, Jones, Maconacon, Naguilian, Palanan, Quezon, Ramon, Roxas, San Guillermo, San Manuel, San Mateo, San Pablo, Sta. Maria and the cities of Cauayan and Ilagan.
“For San Mariano town, we have 458 beneficiaries with Electric Benefit Transfer cards. They have been using their cards since the launching of the program in February 2024 while the beneficiaries included in the scale-up will start by July,” Alan said.
The program provides a holistic approach to combat involuntary hunger by providing the beneficiaries with access to monetary-based assistance. Italso invites them to become more productive citizens by participating in capacity building and training to improve their employable skills
Alan said through the electronic transfer cards, the beneficiaries could purchase their food needs through the identified partner local retailers, especially the locally produced vegetables, rice and other crops of farmers through the Kadiwa program of the agriculture department.
Meanwhile, 297 Ivatan families are now included in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in Batanes.
“Batanes was the last province to be included in the program because it was assessed before as a non-poor province, but with the re-assessment that we conducted, we identified some families that are qualified in the program,” she added.
Alan also said 13 graduation ceremonies were already held in the Cagayan Valley Region with 1,347 families exited in the 4Ps.
She also said 71 beneficiaries successfully graduated from college wherein some are board passers. (OTB/PIA Region 2)
