TARGET EXCEEDED: DSWD-6’s last student assistance payout draws 7,465 beneficiaries

By Jennifer P. Rendon

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Region 6 said it exceeded the number of target beneficiaries during the last mass payout for educational assistance on Sept 24, 2022.

Atty. May Rago-Castillo, DSWD-6 regional information officer, said they were able to provide the aid to 7,465, or around 5 percent higher than the target of 7,105 beneficiaries.

The agency has earlier announced that it would exhaust the remaining P19 million budget for the last payout.

But because more beneficiaries showed up, “we had to augment from our regular fund,” she said.

Aside from student aid, the DSWD’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) program also provides assistance for medical and burial needs.

For the last payout, the DSWD-6 disbursed P21.531 million.

A total of 2,628 beneficiaries were from Iloilo, to include Iloilo City, and 2,196 from Negros Occidental, to include Bacolod City.

Aklan province has 792 beneficiaries; Capiz with 778; Antique with 727; and Guimaras with 344.

The AICS-educational assistance payout for the past six Saturdays (August 20 and 27 and September 3, 10, 17, and 24) benefited 46,055 students.

The total amount disbursed totaled P129.780 million.

Almost half, or 45.6 percent of beneficiaries, are college students at 21,004, who each received P4,000 (P84.016 million).

Meanwhile, 10,375 elementary students got P1,000 each (P10.375 million); 8,639 junior high school students received P2,000 each (P17.278 million); and 6,038 senior high school students received P3,000 each (P18.111 million).

“For DSWD-6, we have fully utilized the funds provided for the Educational Assistance. In fact, part of the fund for the Field Office was used to augment just to reach more,” Castillo said.

She lauded the workers for serving on the six Saturdays.

“Thank you also to the local government units, the PNP and other partners for helping us,” she said.

To the public, Castillo assured that their office will always do its best in the delivery of social services.

“Even if there is no fund for Educational Assistance anymore, we continue in implementing other programs of DSWD,” she said.