Newly appointed DSWD Undersecretary Malou Turalde-Jarabe attended Bukidnon 2016 Anti-Poverty Summit which was held today in Valencia City, Bukidnon. She presented the DSWD’s contribution to the poverty reduction program of the Duterte government. The summit is spearheaded by Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri who also hails from Bukidnon.  The summit will be attended by 400-500 participants from all over the province, among them members of the academe, local government units, national government agencies, and representatives from the basic sectors of society. In attendance are Malaybalay Mayor Ignacio Zubiri, Governor Jose Zubiri of Bukidnon, and Department of Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol.

Bukidnon is home to big plantations and agro-tourism sites such as Del Monte Philippines Inc. (DMPI), Mt. Kitanglad Agri-Ventures Inc (MKAVI) Banana Plantation, Dole South Skyland Banana Plantation, Gue’s Garden (a mini zoo of rare animals), and Helms Farm to name a few. Despite the abundance of plantations and agro-tourism sites in the province, Bukidnon still ranks among the top ten poorest province in the Philippines. Based on a 2015 Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA), Bukidnon ranks number four in the Poverty Incidence Survey(PIS) among all the provinces in the country with a PIS of 53%.

As the summit recognizes the efforts of the government to address the poverty in the province and in the country, the second half of the whole day summit consist of presentations of poverty reduction programs from ten departments of the government.

Usec. Turalde-Jarabe discussed the different programs of the DSWD, with focus on the programs the department has in the province of Bukidnon.

“As DSWD’s new vision is to free all Filipinos from hunger and poverty, have equal opportunities, enabled by fair, just and peaceful society, the department is stepping up its efforts in providing opportunities for people to earn a decent living. One way of doing this is through the convergence of the many programs of DSWD to serve the need of the people and provide livelihood program to the poor communities,” Usec Turalde-Jarabe said.

Turalde-Jarabe explained briefly the Pilot Convergence Project which will be the implementation of pilot nutrition and livelihood interventions through milk supplementation program under the Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) and Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) in partnership with the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC). PCC and DSWD signed a Memorandum of Agreement to facilitate this initiative.

She further elaborated that the Pilot Convergence Project has two components, namely the Milk Supplementary Component and the Livelihood Component.

The Milk Supplementary Component enails the provision of milk and other dairy products to Child Development Centers(CDC). The diary products produced by the PCC and farmer communities engaged in carabao-based enterprises are to be part of the Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) for the pilot CDC’s. The program plans to provide 200ml of milk per child/day for 120 days.

The Livelihood Component, on the other hand refers to the provision of seed capital and/or the required skills training within 120 days so the farmer beneficiaries of DSWD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) will be partners/suppliers for the needs of the Milk Supplementation, thereby generating employment and a profitable enterprise for the farmer communities.

The Milk Supplementation Component will be implemented for 120 days from November 2016 to May 2017. In Bukidnon, a total of 186 CDCs with 7,321 number of children is targeted for the project. The municipalities that will participate are Damulog, San Fernando, and Maramag Bukidnon.

For the livelihood component which shall also be implemented from November 2016 to May 2017. The municipalities that will participate are Damulog, Kitaotao, Maramag, Quezon and San Fernando in Bukidnon.

Aside from discussing the convergence strategy, Turalde-Jarabe also talked about the promotive programs of DSWD such as Kalahi-CIDSS: NCDDP,  Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), Bottom-Up Budgeting Projects (BUB).

For the 4Ps, as of October 2016,  a total of 87,623 active households benefit from the program with a total cash grant amounting to Php704,711,800.

She also discussed the services and program provided by DSWD’s Protective Programs. Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS)provides medical, educational, transportation, burial and food assistance to individuals and families experiencing emergency situation while Assistance to Communities in Need/ Affected by Disaster provides food and non-food assistance, Cash for work programs for calamity-affected communities, and repair/ reconstruction of CDC and senior citizens centers damaged by calamities.

She also presented the assistance the DSWD provides to indigent senior citizens thru the social pension program, and the comprehensive program for street children, street families, and indigenous people-especially Bajaos to reduce the vulnerabilities of children, families and indigenous people living in the streets.

“Fighting poverty is a task of the whole government and of the whole society. The different government agencies should pool their efforts to uplift the lives of our poor kababayans. DSWD will continue to be the voice of the poor in the Duterte government. We will uphold meaningful and long-term reforms that will benefit the people. As majority of our people are farmers and workers, genuine land reform and the provision of needed assistance to farmers so they can raise their productivity must be fully supported, and a national industrialization that will benefit the workers and the country must be undertaken,” Usec. Turalde-Jarabe said.###