ILOILO – There is something more important than money – a clear conscience and knowing that honesty is more valuable than fleeting material goods.
An indigent Ati family in Barangay Lip-ac, San Enrique town is an exemplar of honesty.
Already a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), it returned the P6,000 cash assistance it received from the national government under the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
Under the SAP guidelines, 4Ps are its beneficiaries, too, but the amount allotted to them is lesser – though still good enough for a total of P6,000 when added to their 4Ps assistance.
The family of 34-year-old Helen Segura as a 4Ps beneficiary regularly receives a cash assistance of P4,650.
Originally from Barangay Lincud, Dingle, the family recently moved to San Enrique and became part of the Lip-ac Ati Community.
The barangay council of Lip-ac included in its list of SAP eligible beneficiaries the Segura family, thus when the cash assistance was released, it got P6,000.
But the family rightly values honesty.
“Ginpabalo ako sang amon kapitan sa Dingle tapos ginpapili kami, ti ang 4Ps ginpili ko,” said Segura, a mother of three, over radio station DyRI RMN Iloilo.
She then reached out to Barangay Captain Elvie Paez of Lip-ac.
Because the family already used the SAP money to buy household provisions such as rice, among others, Segura borrowed money from Paez, with a promise to pay the barangay captain when the family’s 4Ps assistance had been released.
A day after this, the Municipal Social Welfare Development Office of Dingle informed the local government of San Enrique that the Segura family’s P4,650 4Ps assistance was now ready, with an additional P1,350 coming soon.
Upon receiving the P4,650, Segura immediately paid this to the Lip-ac barangay captain – a promise fulfilled. This family values word of honor, too.
In a recent interview, Assistant Secretary Rhea Peñaflor of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said the SAP covered indigent or low-income households with any of the following:
* senior citizens not receiving any kind of pension
* persons with disability
* pregnant women
* lactating mothers
* solo parent
* overseas Filipino worker in distress
* informal workers
* occasional workers like househelpers
* drivers of pedicabs, tricycles, taxis, public utility buses, and public utility jeepneys
* micro-entrepreneurs
* sub-minimum wage earners
* farmers, fishermen (provided they are not recipients of assistance from the Department of Agriculture)
* workers in the private sector observing “no work, no pay” (provided they have not availed themselves of the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program of the Department of Labor and Employment)/PN
