By PNA and U.S. News Agency / Asian

President Benigno S. Aquino III led the distribution of basic services to the Capizenos in fulfillment of his commitment to his social contract with the Filipino people.

The Chief Executive personally distributed the government’s assistance to the people of Capiz that include supplemental feeding, social pension for the elderly, conditional cash transfer, PhilHealth membership cards, agricultural help, and certificates of land ownership, among others.

First to be distributed by the President, who was assisted by Health Undersecretary David Lozada Jr. and PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Rey Aquino, were PhilHealth cards to sixteen municipalities including the city of Capiz.

Capiz now has a total of 115,825 Philhealth sponsored program members. The distribution is part of the continuing effort of the government to achieve universal coverage for the Filipinos as part of the flagship projects of the Aquino administration.

Assisted by Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon ‘Dinky’ Soliman, the President distributed the checks for the supplemental feeding program to five local executives of municipalities that will benefit from the program.

Supplementary feeding program is the provision of food, in addition to the regular meals to currently-enrolled day-care center children, as recommended by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.

Also eight senior citizens from Roxas City received their monthly stipend under the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens while a check was also handed to a Self-Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (SEA-K) association.

Social pension is the monthly stipend amounting to P500.00 to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of indigent elderly. It is in line with the fulfillment of the obligation of the government to protect the most vulnerable sector through social protection and for the full implementation of Republic Act 9994.

The SEA Kaunlaran project is the formation of a savings credit facility to provide qualified beneficiaries with access to socialized credit to enable them to finance income-generating projects that can augment their minimal incomes.

President Aquino assisted by Undersecretary Anthony Parungao of the Department of Agrarian Reform also handed over Certificates of Land Ownership Awards to eight municipalities of Capiz.

The Department of Agriculture, for its part, gave the Certificates of Award for the agency’s various projects in the province to Governor Victor Tanco.

Prior to the awarding ceremonies, President Aquino was briefed by concerned government agency heads on the progress of their mission to attend to the needs of the people.