Poverty has been a problem in the Philippines since time immemorial. Unfortunately, the number of Filipinos suffering from the aforementioned social problem is increasing every year. This is in spite of the poverty alleviation interventions being implemented by the government and numerous civic society groups.
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s nine-year term saw the birth and growth of one of her foremost anti-poverty programs – the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program – popularly known as the 4Ps. Pantawid Pamilya is a conditional cash transfer program that provides incentives for poor families to invest in their future by ensuring that mothers and children avail of healthcare and that children go to school.
It is a human development program of the national government that invests in the health and education of poor households, particularly of children aged 0-14 years old. The program aims to provide social assistance and social development to its beneficiaries. By providing opportunity for the development of the young, it envisions to prevent the vicious transmission of the cycle of poverty.
Pantawid Pamilya helps to fulfill the country’s commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
The aforementioned program has been around for quite some time but there are still doubts as to the awareness of the beneficiaries about the programs thrust, its selection process, and its benefits, among others.
It is the aim of this study to determine the level of awareness of the Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries in order to present facts that will help the appropriate government agencies implement the program more effectively.
The study on the level of awareness of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program will focus on its beneficiaries living in Barangay Lagao. Lagao was one of the four Settlement Districts created by the National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA) headed by the late General Paulino T. Santos in 1939. The town of Lagao was established on March 03, 1939, five (5) days after the first batchers of settlers arrived from Manila via SS Basilan Compania Maritima. It lies 3.5 kilometers Northeast of Dadiangas, (Dadiangas was nameless at that time) the port of Koronadal, was the administration center of distribution of the whole Koronadal project of NLSA. Hence, General Santos and his office in Lagao were occupied by the employees of NLSA. The town of Lagao consisted initially of three (3) barrios namely: first barrio, second barrio and third barrio (first barrio and third barrio were merged into one, now known as Lagao while second barrio became another barangay known as San Isidro).
At present the barangay is home to the city’s major malls, numerous banking institutions, hospitals, and restaurants, to name a few. In spite of these developments, the barangay is also home to quite a number of beneficiaries of the government’s 4Ps.
The study on the level of awareness of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in Barangay Lagao, General Santos City aims to answer the following questions:
The study will be of great contribution to various individuals as well as to social institutions.
The data gathered will help the Department of Social Welfare and Development to assess the program and make necessary alterations in various areas, if needed.
The study will provide data that will enrich the reader’s perception about the program and how the beneficiaries perceive it to be.
The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a human development program of the national government. It is also a social protection strategy that invests in the health and education of poor children age 0-14 years old. It is widely known as the Philippine conditional cash transfer program. As of January 9, 2013, the program has 3,843,502 household beneficiaries and operates in 1,605 cities and municipalities in 79 provinces in all 17 regions nationwide. ( http://pantawid.dswd.gov.ph/ )
Social assistance: provide cash assistance to address the short-term financial need. 2. Social development: by investing in capability building they will be able to break intergenerational poverty cycle. The poorest among poor families as identified by 2003 Small Area Estimate (SAE) survey of National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) are eligible. The poorest among poor are selected through a proxy-means test. Economic indicators such as ownership of assets, type of housing, education of the household head, livelihood of the family and access to water and sanitation facilities are proxy variables to indicate the family economic category. Additional qualification is a household that has children 0–14 years old and/or have pregnant women during the assessment and shall agree on all the conditions set by the government to enter the program (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantawid_Pamilyang_Pilipino_Program).
Pantawid Pamilya is geared towards attaining the five of the eight Millennium Development Goals: (1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) Achieve Universal Primary Education, (3) Promote gender equality and empower women, (4) Reduce child mortality, and (5) Improve maternal health, and to promote Department’s commitment to United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Children. The beneficiaries of the program are the poorest households as determined by the use of the proxy Means Test (PMT). Eligible households are those that have been found to meet the following criteria: • are located in the municipalities and barangays selected for the Pantawid Pamilya program – poor families belonging to the top 20 poorest provinces in the country and top 100 poorest municipalities who have children 0-14 years old or a pregnant mother.
At the same time, the cash grants alleviate current poverty by providing immediate relief from cash flow problems. Such extra cash received on a bimonthly basis is especially important for poor households that have irregular or seasonal income.
A household with three qualified children receives a subsidy of P1,400/month during the school months or P15, 000 for the whole year for as long as they comply with the conditionalities set by the program. The amount of grants that they would be receiving depends upon their compliance to the conditions. Beneficiaries receive their cash grants through different modes of payment such as Over-the-counter (OTC), Offsite, Cash Card, and G-Cash Remit. ((http://www.fo4b.dswd.gov.ph/index.php/programs-and-services/foreign-assisted-projects/4ps)
Since the implementation of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program in 2007, significant developments in the lives of poor households have already been observed. Increased enrolment among school children and high availment of health services are some of the early positive results. Researches and studies also reveal that behavioral change and improved perspective in life are some of the outcomes documented to have occurred amount the lives of the beneficiaries which can be attributed to the program. (www.dswd.gov.ph)
According to http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/earlycld/ea7lk5.htm, a family’s socioeconomic status is based on family income, parental education level, parental occupation, and social status in the community (such as contacts within the community, group associations, and the community’s perception of the family), note Demarest, Reisner, Anderson, Humphrey, Farquhar, and Stein (1993). Families with high socioeconomic status often have more success in preparing their young children for school because they typically have access to a wide range of resources to promote and support young children’s development. They are able to provide their young children with high-quality child care, books, and toys to encourage children in various learning activities at home. Also, they have easy access to information regarding their children’s health, as well as social, emotional, and cognitive development.
In addition, families with high socioeconomic status often seek out information to help them better prepare their young children for school. Parents with low socioeconomic status often lack the financial, social, and educational supports that characterize families with high socioeconomic status. Poor families also may have inadequate or limited access to community resources that promote and support children’s development and school readiness.
Parents may have inadequate skills for such activities as reading to and with their children, and they may lack information about childhood immunizations and nutrition. Zill, Collins, West, and Hausken (1995) state that “low maternal education and minority-language status are most consistently associated with fewer signs of emerging literacy and a greater number of difficulties in preschoolers.” Having inadequate resources and limited access to available resources can negatively affect families’ decisions regarding their young children’s development and learning. As a result, children from families with low socioeconomic status are at greater risk of entering kindergarten unprepared than their peers from families with median or high socioeconomic status.
Dr. Phil Bartle’s Factors of Poverty on http://cec.vcn.bc.ca/cmp/modules/emp-pov.htm cited that poverty as a social problem is a deeply embedded wound that permeates every dimension of culture and society. It includes sustained low levels of income for members of a community. It includes a lack of access to services like education, markets, health care, lack of decision making ability, and lack of communal facilities like water, sanitation, roads, transportation, and communications. Furthermore, it is a “poverty of spirit,” that allows members of that community to believe in and share despair, hopelessness, apathy, and timidity. Poverty, especially the factors that contribute to it, is a social problem, and its solution is social.
The simple transfer of funds, even if it is to the victims of poverty, will not eradicate or reduce poverty. It will merely alleviate the symptoms of poverty in the short run. It is not a durable solution. Poverty as a social problem calls for a social solution.
The study uses some conceptual and operational definitions to describe the variables of the study. The relationship among between the variables is illustrated in Figure 1.
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a conditional cash transfer program that provides incentives for poor families to invest in their future by ensuring that mothers and children avail of healthcare and that children go to school. As such, it is a human development program that invests in the health and education of children. (http://www.fo4b.dswd.gov.ph/index.php/programs-and-services/foreign-assisted-projects/4ps)
In the study the Pantawid Pamilya is a program being implemented through the Department of Social Welfare and Development throughout the country.
Beneficiaries of the program (per household) receives a total of P6,000 per year or P500 per month intended for health and nutrition needs of the family such as food, medicine, and vitamins. For educational assistance, every household receives a total of P3,000 per year or P300 per month per child for 10 months a year, to a maximum of 3 children per household. (http://www.fo4b.dswd.gov.ph/index.php/programs-and-services/foreign-assisted-projects/4ps)
Beneficiaries are mothers who met the requirements set by the DSWD for at least six months whether continuous or not.
Conceptual Paradigm
Figure 1
The study on the level of awareness of the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program in Lagao, General Santos City has the hypothesis that the socio-economic profile of the respondents greatly affects their awareness. Beneficiaries who are older, with higher educational attainment, stable source of income, and fewer children most likely have higher awareness compared to those who have characteristics opposite of those enumerated above.
This study used some conceptual and operational definitions to describe the variables of the study.
Awareness is defined by http://www.thefreedictionary.com/awareness as having knowledge or cognizance. It implies knowledge gained through one’s own perceptions or by means of information. The study will measure the knowledge of the respondents regarding the history of the 4Ps, its objectives, qualifications and selection of its beneficiaries, its benefits , and its effects on the lives of its beneficiaries.
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps (formerly Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino) is a conditional cash transfer program of the Philippine government under the Department of Social Welfare and Development. It aims to eradicate extreme poverty in the Philippines by investing in health and education particularly in ages 0–14. It is patterned on programs in other developing countries like Brazil (Oportunidades) and Mexico (Bolsa Família). The 4Ps program now operates in 17 region, 79 provinces and 1,261 municipalities and 138 key cities covering 3,014,586 household beneficiary.
The term “beneficiaries” refers to the persons and the communities that utilize the project outputs, i.e., the entities that development-aid project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneficiary).
This chapter presents the procedures followed in conducting the study. It specifies the research design, the respondents of the study, data gathering instruments and statistical treatment.
This is a quantitative survey study. It obtains information from the respondents’ answer of the questionnaire which presents the items in a check-list form.
The respondents of the study will be the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program in Barangay Lagao, General Santos City. The respondents have been beneficiaries for at least six (6) months. In case eligible respondents exceed a total of 100, the researcher will use random sampling procedure to identify the respondents.
The instrument that will be used to gather the data is a check-list questionnaire which the researcher will distribute once the respondents have been identified. In case vague answers will be provided, the researcher shall contact the respondent and conduct an interview.
The appropriate statistical treatment will be used once the data has been gathered.
To the Respondents: Kindly answer the following items according to the best of your knowledge. The items enumerated will provide data on the study entitled “Level of Awareness of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Beneficiaries in Lagao, General Santos City”.
Instruction: Check the box that corresponds to your answer. Refer to the following scale for items under II:
Name: (optional)
Age:
Complete Address:
Civil Status:_____Single_____Married_____Widow/Widower _____Cohabiting Highest Educational Attainment:
_____Elementary Level_____High School Level_____College Level
_____Elementary Graduate_____High School Graduate_____College Graduate
_____Others, specify_______________________________
Source of Income:_________________________
Number of Children:_________________________
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