It All Started with One “Jocelyn”

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program has millions of faces with different stories. But among them, there are always those who stand out.

In Barangay Pajo, Lapu-Lapu City, one model woman spread her wings to go on a journey of a fulfilling and empowering life.

Jocelyn L. Manacap, 44, of Barangay Pajo, is now making a mark as a Parent-Leader (PL) of one national government poverty alleviation program.

She is one of the more than 200 PLs of this historic city. She was chosen by her co-parent leaders as the chairperson of the PLs in their barangay which has 214 Pantawid members.

“It is really an honor on my part as someone who was given that bigger responsibility to lead. I find it challenging but at the same time rewarding,” Jocelyn humbly said in local dialect.

To note, in each barangay here, the Pantawid beneficiaries are organized into clusters or parent groups headed by a PL. The parent leaders are organized further with a set of officers led by a chairperson which was later federated and called as Lapu-Lapu City Federation of Parent Leaders.

Under Jocelyn’s leadership, support becomes unceasing especially from both the city government and the barangay.

Last 2017, their organization was provided with an office space making it the first-ever barangay in this city or even in the whole Province of Cebu to have such.

The office space serves as a venue for their monthly PLs meeting where Pantawid forms (certificate of compliance, school enrollment, beneficiaries update forms), pamphlets and other learning materials about DSWD and Pantawid program are found for their easy access and use.

“The office is a very useful venue to address properly the issues or concerns of the group and other problems they may encounter with regard to the program and or the DSWD as a whole,” said Roda Bandibas, Pantawid Pamilya City Link assigned in the city.

Barangay Pajo’s Pantawid Office has been an object of envy of other parent leaders that they wish to have their own and thought of lobbying with their respective barangay local government unit.
Meanwhile, as the chairperson, Jocelyn was given a monthly compensation amounting to Php 3,500 while her co-parent leaders receive Php 2,000 to Php 2,500 on top of the Php 1,000 honorarium they receive from the City Government.

The barangay LGU also appointed one of their barangay officials as Pantawid focal person. Together with the PLs and all Pantawid members, the focal person leads the conduct of community activities such as clean up drives, communal gardening, among others.

Jocelyn reports to Pantawid Office thrice a week where she attends to member beneficiaries’ concerns even the facilitation of GAD-related cases.

At their office, she has a profiling of all Pantawid members through an individual case folder and a compilation of receipts from the purchased rice of their members.

She and her co-parent leaders religiously do surprise home visits to check the cash cards of their members. They also guide their members who fail to comply with the program’s conditionalities.

As a result, Barangay Pajo has no incidence of cash-card pawning reported in the Grievance Redress System of the program and last period (February – March) 2019, they have 99.45 percent compliance rate in education which is higher compared to others.

Aside from the local government units, other stakeholders like the General Milling Corporation (GMC) lend to the group an idle lot which was converted into a herbal/vegetable garden. Jocelyn, specifically, is hands-on with the project.

The good thing about this is that, little by little, it augments to the supply side requirements of the community’s implementation of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)’s Supplemental Feeding Program in their Child Development Center. No less than the former barangay captain, now turned City Mayor, encouraged them to make productive use of the land. Jocelyn told that the Mayor had visited twice to see the developments and to harvest vegetables to be brought to the Center.

Were it not for one “Jocelyn”, she couldn’t have earned the trust of community and other allies.

Jocelyn is also a good mother to her own family but she has extended her family to a bigger one – the Pantawid Pamilya!

The full support of the local government unit of this city and other stakeholders on the poverty alleviation program of the DSWD has indeed created positive changes in the lives of its partner-beneficiaries.