The Department of Social Welfare and Development 6 (DSWD-6) is currently monitoring 12 ‘epal’ politicians in Western Visayas who have been habitually claiming the department’s pro-poor programs particularly the Pantawid Pamilya as theirs.

‘Epal politicians’ refer to those who are attention-hungry by posting their names and faces in public places or claim government-funded projects as theirs.

DSWD’s Regional Monitoring and Evaluation officer Beverly Salazar said the names of these politicians were reported to them by Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries from the provinces of Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz, Negros Occidental and Guimaras.

Salazar, however, refused to reveal the names to avoid jeopardizing their monitoring.

Salazar said she has the original copy of the letters sent by some of these politicians informing beneficiaries that the program was materialized through their efforts.

“This is really a big no. Politicians are not allowed to claim credit for the program, even during the cash distribution so that they will not use the activity for their politicking,” she said.

Since the DSWD-6 has no police power over these abusive politicians, Salazar said they will make a documentation report and send it to the department’s Grievance Committee which will then forward it to the Central Office in Manila.

The Central Office will send the report to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) or Commission on Elections (Comelec) for further action.

“That’s the least we could do to prevent epal and to protect our field workers against possible threats, too,” she said.

For any complaint, one can send a text to DSWD through 0918.912.2813.

GROUNDS FOR DELISTING

Meanwhile, DSWD-6 information officer May Rago-Castillo reiterated that only their agency can delist Pantawid Pamilya or Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) beneficiaries if they violate any of the 

conditions.

She said the DSWD is the implementing agency of the project while the local executives or officials are only their partners in the execution of the program, thus the latter have no authority to delist any of the beneficiaries.

Castillo said the reasons for delisting include non-compliance of conditions, the beneficiary no longer has a child zero to 17 years of age and the beneficiary has a job with an income of P10,000 and above per month.

As of February 20 of this year, 11,101 ‘undeserving’ households in the region were delisted.

The DSWD-6 now has a total of 295,127 Pantawid Pamilya household beneficiaries.

The agency has identified 2.3 million poor individuals in the region that are living below the poverty threshold, out of 1,396, 505 households in the region based on the 2007 national census.*