By PNA and U.S. News Agency / Asian

Some 4,000 individuals belonging to depressed families from 15 barangays in this city will start receiving subsistence from the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)this October.

City Social Welfare Development Office (CSWDO)chief Nadeia Sarte made the announcement Friday following the validation of the beneficiaries in the 15 barangays that conducted simultaneous screening of over 6,000 persons listed to receive financial assistance from the 4Ps program.

Sarte said the names of over 6,000 targetted beneficiaries were gathered since September 17 in the barangays through a house-to-house interview by volunteer social workers of poor families but trimmed down to only 4,000 after the final screening.

CSWDO officials said that the 4Ps project is focus on members of depressed families in the city. The program was implemented to ensure bringing financial and other benefits being afforded by the national government to poor families that needed it most.

Sarte said the 4Ps program is one of the priority focus of the City of Antipolo to ensure that those in need of the financial subsistence get the correct information and receive the exact amount of the financial support being afforded by the government through the 4Ps project.

She said that two years after President Benigno Aquino III started promoting the program through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Mayor Nilo Leyble here immediately directed the CSWDO to conduct information campaigns on the program, particularly on the financial benefits being offered to the poorest of the poor, including briefing them on the guidelines that should be followed.

She said this has to be done because the city government cannot just give the benefits to anyone without going through the processes spelled out by the national government that include deploying social workers in the villages to conduct interviews and gather correct data from prospective family beneficiaries.

Under the DSWD guidelines, each family beneficiary will receive financial support not higher than P1,500 a month and not lower than P500 per month depending on the economic status of families included in the 4Ps project, she said.

Sarte also said that the poorest families in every barangay that do not have any means of livelihood or source of income are the only ones entitled to receive the benefits under the 4Ps program.

The CSWDO official said the number of families that were included as official 4Ps beneficiaries in the final screening on September 28 were as follows: 401 families from Barangay Sta. Cruz, Inarawan,545; Dela Paz,516; San Juan,245; Calawis,345; San Luis, 1,553; San Jose,173; Cupang,3; Mambugan,4; Mayamot, 7; San Isidro,28; Beverly Hills, 21; Bagong Nayon,10; Munting Dilaw, 38; 92 from Dalig, 92; and San Roque, 75.