DSWD Proposed 2016 Budget Should Include Programs For Solo Parents

Manila (PNA) — A House member has called for the inclusion of funds for solo parents in the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) budget in 2016.

At the budget hearing on the DSWD’s proposed PHP104.01 billion budget for 2016 conducted by the House Committee on Appropriations chaired by Rep. Isidro T. Ungab (3rd District, Davao City), Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla (2nd District, Cavite) said that while the DSWD has many projects introduced to the various congressional districts, they don’t have for the solo parents.

“I admire the projects that you have been promoting and bringing down to our districts, but I believe you have forgotten the solo parents. Mahirap magtaguyod ng pamilya ng walang asawa. Sa tingin ko dapat din itong pagtuunan ng pansin,” said Mercado-Revilla.

Mercado-Revilla said the DSWD, with its huge budget for next year, should also focus on the needs and welfare of the solo parents. “I hope you can also consider this since the DSWD has a very big budget for 2016,” Mercado-Revilla said.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman vowed to look at the solo parents program and primarily work on how they can make the law work for this sector.

Soliman said the poverty reduction program, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), has included the solo parents.

Right now, she said the DSWD is supporting 273,463 solo parents under the 4Ps.

“For your information, we have Pantawid Pamilya enrollees who are solo parents. I think we can do much more by way of expanding the program for solo parents,” said Soliman.

During the hearing, Soliman also said that the PHP128.548 million for National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) represents the agency’s maintenance of the present database, which will eventually be composed of 15 million data on families.

“This is part of the second survey of the NHTS. We are at the level of 12 million now encoded, and by the third week of September, we will be ready to give the initial result of the second survey, which means we will have 15 million families’ data in the whole of the Philippines,” said Soliman.

She said the proposed PHP128.548 million shall be used for the maintenance of the database. “That will be upgrading of our IT system. It’s the salary plus the licensing and working with the telcos because these are all based on IT. So that is the cost of the PHP128 million work,” she said.

According to the DSWD, the NHTS-PR is an information management system “that identifies who and where the poor are in the country. The system makes available to national government agencies and other social protection stakeholders a database of poor households as reference in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs.”

The DSWD spearheads the implementation of the project. The NHTS-PR is a response of the DSWD to contribute in the improvement of social protection programs of the government and in the equitable distribution of services and resources among the poor.

The NHTS-PR aims to establish an objective targeting system, and reduce the leakage (inclusion of non-poor) and under-coverage (exclusion of the poor) in social protection programs and services.

Of the PHP104.01 billion proposed DSWD budget of for 2016, PHP4.8 billion shall go to personnel services, PHP97.3 billion to maintenance and other operating expenses, PHP781.7 million to financial expenses, and PHP1.06 billion for capital outlay. (PNA) FFC/PR/EBP