DSWD cites East Visayas partners

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
February 9, 2013

TACLOBAN CITY – In line with its 62nd Anniversary celebration, the Department of Social Welfare and Development honoured three of its partners from the non-government organizations and the local government units for significantly providing successful social protection programs to marginalized and vulnerable sectors of the Region.

This year’s awardees who were feted on February 6 at the Leyte Park Hotel in Tacloban City were South Pacific Integrated Agricultural Development Foundation Inc. (SPIADFI); Municipality of Javier, Leyte for the “Gawad Paglilingkod sa Sambayanan” (GAPAS) Award; and the Province of Leyte for the “Gawad sa Makabagong Teknolohiya” for introducing the biometric system for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

DSWD Regional Director Remia Tapispisan informed that the municipality of Javier, Leyte under the leadership of Mayor Leonardo Javier, also received the same recognition at the national level during the DSWD anniversary celebration, held last February 1, 2013 in Manila.

The “Pagkilala sa Natatanging Kontribusyon Ko sa Bayan” (PaNaTa) awards is “our way of expressing gratitude and appreciation to our partners,” Director Tapispisan said. The “PaNaTa Ko Sa Bayan” Awards aims to recognize partners, stakeholders in appreciation with their unending support in the implementation of social protection programs at their own level.

In the case of the Province of Leyte’s biometric system for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, the biometrics technology is now being replicated in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, particularly in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, Ms. Joan Baclay, Information Officer for the Pantawid Pamilya in the Region, said.

It may be recalled that no less than Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman witnessed the launching of the use of biometrics system for over-the-counter distribution of cash grants to Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries at the Municipal Gymnasium of Matag-ob, Leyte in September of 2012.

The biometrics system developed by three scholars of the Income Creating Opportunities Thru Technology Project (ICOTP-ICT) of the Provincial Government of Leyte and Department of Education, is an innovation being introduced by the DSWD and the local government of Leyte to validate beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilya in the municipality.

Then Leyte Governor, now Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said that “with the new system, Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries will now use their fingerprints as identification to receive their cash grants and no longer need to show their identification cards.”