DSWD: Finally, Mangyan kids given birth certificates

Finally, children in Mangyan communities in Magsaysay town, Mindoro Occidental province have their own “name and nationality" after receiving their birth certificates through the Department of Social Welfare and Development. The DSWD said the Mangyans got their birth certificates as part of the government’s anti-poverty “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program." DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman is pleased that Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program has helped in promoting and upholding the rights of children especially the right to a name and nationality. “The government has intensified its efforts to reach out to indigenous peoples in order for them to be involved in development initiatives paving the way for their empowerment towards improved quality of life," she said. For its part, the Local Civil Registrar of Magsaysay town affirmed that when the DSWD started implementing the Pantawid Pamilya in the municipality, the registration for birth and marriage was estimated to have a ten percent increase.
View Larger Map Mangyan beneficiaries “If not for Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, our children would still have no name and nationality," said Marilou Encabo, 35 and an indigenous Mangyan, in an article posted on the DSWD website. She said the Mangyan’s way of life and the remoteness of their homes have excluded them from community activities and government services. There are an estimated 100,000 Mangyans remaining in Mindoro, comprising roughly ten percent of the island’s population. Marilou has three children but not one of them was registered with the Local Civil Registrar until February 2009 when she became a Pantawid Pamilya beneficiary. The DSWD said Marilou’s family is among the 3,036 beneficiaries (as of March 30) of Pantawid Pamilya in Magsaysay town. “As a beneficiary, Marilou received P800 for health and education of her seven-year-old son who is in elementary. Since Marilou was pregnant then, she had her pre-natal check-up at the Barangay Health Center where she was given a tetanus toxoid. Her children were also given a dose of deworming pills," said the DSWD article. Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program The Pantawid Pamilya is a poverty reduction program of the government that provides cash grants of as much as P1,400 to extremely poor households with three qualified children, to help them meet their health, nutrition and education needs. It includes P500 per month for nutrition and health expenses and P300 monthly per child for educational expenses. Families can receive the cash grants for up to five years, as long as they comply with the conditionalities such as sending their children to school with 85 percent attendance and bringing them to health centers for immunizations, check-ups and deworming. Other conditionalities require pregnant women to avail of pre- and post-natal care and for them to be attended to by a trained professional during childbirth; and require parents to attend family development sessions. – MRT/JV, GMA News