The almost 3,000 grantees of the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the municipality of Calinog in Iloilo are now investors of a lending facility.

Calinog Pantawid Association with 2,989 members decided to come up with their savings program back in 2018 called “Kinot (frugal) Supot (save) Program” (KSP), which was converted later into a lending program, according to its president, Femia dela Cruz, in an interview.

4Ps is the poverty alleviation strategy of the government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“When we already have a sufficient amount, we thought of putting up a ‘kabalaka’ (concern) lending where we loan to employees of the municipal hall for our members to earn an income,” she added.

The formation of the lending program was realized with the assistance of Merly Delfin, the coordinator of the Sustainable Living Program of the Municipal Welfare and Development Office of Calinog.

Members are encouraged to save at least P5 daily. To make it easier though, their members remit their savings every payout, which is done every two months.

The 4Ps beneficiaries will receive a P750 health grant per household, educational grants for a maximum of three children per household – P700 for senior high school, P500 for junior high school, and P300 for elementary – and a P600 rice subsidy. The release of grants is done every two months.

At first, dela Cruz said it was a challenge encouraging the members to join as others doubted where their money will go.

To make it enticing, they come up with an idea of extending P10,000 mutual aid to their members who will die. They have already released assistance to the family of 24 grantees, she said.

Also, once a member has reached a savings of P1,000 they may opt to just pay for the annual mutual aid of P100 or continue with their savings.

“Every year they have dividends. So anytime if they decide to withdraw their savings, they can also get their dividend,” dela Cruz added.

To keep track of their savings, each member has a passbook and the association also kept a record of how much they have contributed to the KSP.

From 2018 up to the present, they already have P2 million in capital.

Regular employees of the municipal hall can borrow up to P50,000 and a maximum of P30,000 for casual, contractual, and job hires based on their net pay with a monthly interest of five percent based on diminishing balance.

Three percent of the interest goes to the association and one percent each to the collector and operational expenses.

Currently, they are in the process of computing their dividend as they gear for a general assembly now that restrictions due to the health pandemic have been eased.

Apart from their grants, 4Ps members have also other sources of income through the SLP.

SLP is one of the core programs of the DSWD whose beneficiaries are 4Ps members and poor families identified through the National Household Targeting System (NHTS) under the convergence concept.

Delfin said that the local government of Calinog has prioritized investing in human resources to look into the implementation of their poverty alleviation programs.

She said that recipients of the SLP grants are encouraged to return even just one-half of their grant so it can be re-loan to other qualified beneficiaries without interest.Perla Lena/PNA