ILOILO City – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region 6 has started the region-wide rollout of cash assistance under the Unified Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food and Transport (UPLIFT) Program, with tens of thousands of poor and near-poor households in Western Visayas set to receive monthly government aid aimed at cushioning the impact of rising prices and fuel costs.
The first payout covered designated sites in Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo City and Iloilo province.
DSWD-6 director Joselito Estember said beneficiaries are divided into three groups:
* Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and Walang Gutom Program beneficiaries;
* near-poor families identified through the 2024 Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS); and
* qualified workers earning P20,000 or below in Social Security System monthly salary credit.
Estember explained: “The beneficiaries are the near-poor. Those that isang shock lang sa kanilang pamumuhay, automatically magsa-slide down sa poor status.”
Estember said about 450,000 4Ps households and 20,000 Walang Gutom beneficiaries are covered under Group 1.
Group 2 initially includes more than 77,000 near-poor households in Western Visayas, while the list for Group 3 will come from the Social Security System.
Group 1 beneficiaries receive a one-time P2,000, while Groups 2 and 3 will receive P2,000 monthly from July to December 2026.
Estember added: “Ini sia nga assistance, pahagan-hagan ini because kinahanglan naton maghatag sang dugang nga augmentation tungod sa kataas sang aton balaklon kag fuel.”
The UPLIFT program was launched by the Marcos administration to help poor, near-poor and low-income households maintain their purchasing power amid the continuing energy emergency and rising costs of basic commodities. Local government units are assisting in organizing payouts, but DSWD emphasized that beneficiary lists came solely from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s CBMS database./PN
