In line with the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Caraga Field Office launched its 4Ps set 3 municipalities and cities and conducted an ongoing registration to its potential beneficiaries.

Set 3 4Ps areas in the region include 2 municipalities in Agusan del Norte; 4 municipalities in Surigao del Norte; 11 municipalities in Surigao del Sur and 2 cities – Tandag City and Butuan City.

Launching and registration of potential beneficiaries were conducted in each respective municipal gym. LGU officials were thankful for being chosen as one of the recipients of the program and showed support by providing volunteers tohelp in the registration.

During the registration, potential beneficiaries whose name appears in the master list are required to bring the following: (2) 2×2 pictures, (1) 1×1, marriage contract or birth certificate for verification and identification.

Beneficiaries were identified through the selection of poorest provinces based on the 2006 Family Income Expenditure Survey (FIES), subsequently, the selection of poorest municipalities were selected through Small Area Estimates (SAE) and FIES where saturation survey of households was conducted. The final process was the computerized selection based on the Proxy-Means Test (PMT) which was developed for the program. PMT is an instrument that will assess the socio economic characteristics, such as the ownership of assets or appliances, type of housing unit, level of educational attainment of household heads and access to water and sanitation.

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a poverty reduction strategy of the government that will provide cash grants to those extremely poor households. The program aims to provide social assistance that will provide cash assistance in order to alleviate their needs and Social development, to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. ### (Social Marketing Unit, January 26, 2010)