SAGAY CITY, Negros Occidental (PIA) — The Sagay city government has launched a program to mitigate hunger and poverty in the city. Sagay City Mayor Leo Rafael M. Cueva, along with this city’s core team signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) supporting the Philippine Millennium Development Goals Family-Based Actions for Children and the Environs in the Slum (MDG-Faces). A management team has been created by Cuevas to fast track immediate implementation of MDG-Faces Project in Sagay. Sagay City is one of 16 cities nationwide identified as recipient of the second phase implementation of the United Nations Center for Human Settlements (UN Habitat) of its Faces Project with the latter’s intervention program aimed at mitigating hunger and poverty among the poorest communities in the country.

P31.5-M RELEASED 

KALIBO, Aklan (PIA) — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has released P31.5 million for Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries. Some 20,510 households from Aklan’s 15 towns will receive their 4Ps cash grants for May and June this August.  For the period, P31,530,300 will be released over-the-counter to the beneficiaries, said DSWD-6 Regional Director Minda Brigoli in her letter to Aklan Governor Carlito S. Marquez. Brigoli said the DSWD will be releasing the cash grants over-the-counter along with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) August 3 up to August 30.

ILLEGAL RECRUITMENT

DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental (PIA) — Mabinay town authorities recently intercepted the illegal recruitment of 15 adults in Brgy. Samac after a legal recruiter tipped off police and local officials of the presence of an illegal recruiter in the area. Romualdo Señeres of the Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. (VF), said Mabinay police were able to foil the departure of 15 recruits, mostly males, none of whom were minors, bound for Davao and Bukidnon to work as sacadas (seasonal workers). The VF is a non-government organization working to combat human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.

D.O.S.T.-7 UPGRADE

SIQUIJOR (PIA) — Another upgrading project in Enrique Villanueva town, this province, was approved and funded under the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SET-UP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Region 7. Elena’s Bakery and Pasalubong Center of Poblacion, owned and managed by Elena T. Ibera, received funds worth P378,500 from the DOST-SETUP to facilitate acquisition and fabrication of equipment and materials needed for its baking technology upgrade.

NUTRITION ORIENTATION

BORONGAN CITY, Eastern Samar (PIA) — Social Welfare officer Thelma Banal said 25 beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) here have completed their orientation on good nutrition. Banal awarded the trainees, mostly mothers, their certificates of participation in the training which included backyard gardening so they would be self-sufficient in providing vegetables for their children.