DSWD sets Friday deadline to identify cheap rice beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will give Church groups and local social welfare development offices (SWDOs) until Friday to submit their lists of families eligible for family access cards for cheap rice. A statement on the DSWD website Tuesday evening said secretary Esperanza Cabral expects at least 600,000 families to avail of the National Food Authority (NFA) rice. "In line with the directions from the President, the DSWD has set April 25 as the deadline for submission of the complete lists of barangays and families who have been identified by the local SWDOs and the Church, to be given family access cards," the statement said. Cabral said the 600,000 families are considered to be at the bottom 30 percent of the population's poor families in the 17 cities and towns in Metro Manila alone. She said the local social welfare offices in coordination with the baranggay councils will identify the recipients of the family access cards based on the monthly income of their residents. This should be less than P5,000 monthly for a family of five members, the food threshold income based on the assessment of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). Meanwhile, Cabral urged concerned village officials to conduct community assemblies to explain the prioritization process in the identification of families. She said the General Intake Sheet (GIS) should be used to gather data/information of the targeted families and for purposes of completing the list for submission to DSWD national. For their part, Social Welfare and Development Officers (SWDOs) should assess the families using the basic criteria which is the family level of income as seen from the General Intake Sheet. "The SWDOs should validate the information at the barangay level even through random sampling; SWDO then prepare the master list of eligible families in the targeted barangays and submit the same to DSWD-NCR; SWDO will endorse the final list of eligible families to the barangay officials for confirmation and posting in the barangay hall for transparency," she said. Cabral also stressed that while some local governments had issued their own family access cards, it is the DSWD that will issue the final master numbers for qualified households. The families will purchase NFA rice from Tindahan Natin Outlets and Bigasan ng Parokya with the use of the FACs. The issuance of family access cards was done to ensure that the poorest families will benefit from the NFA rice priced at P18.25/kilo compared to commercial rice sold at P35 to P40/kilo. Also, the DSWD will monitor the allocation of family access cards to ensure that these were given to the right recipients. - GMANews.TV