LA LIBERTAD, Negros Oriental, Philippines — With over 1,000 families from this province to graduate from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) next year, top officials from the Region 7 office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are urging beneficiaries to spend the money they receive judiciously.

“Use the money properly so that by the time you graduate from the Pantawid Pamilya program, you would have really crossed over from poverty,” DSWD7 regional director Evelyn Macapobre said during a recent turn-over ceremony here.

Macapobre said by 2013, family beneficiaries “may not be millionaires but definitely, they represent the start of a better generation.”

To recall, the DSWD 7 disbursed some P8.4 million from the DSWD’s Self Employment Assistance Kaunlaran (SEAK) Program benefiting some 1,224 4Ps beneficiaries here.

The SEAK funds, which include interest-free loans, were lent to said beneficiaries so as to give them a chance to engage in small businesses like hog and livestocks raising and provide additional capital for existing sari-sari stores, barbecue stands, and the like.

Said funds are expected to help 4Ps beneficiaries in terms of livelihood options so that when they stop receiving conditional cash transfer, their daily needs can still be sustained.

DSWD7 4Ps program officer, Aileen Lariba said the 1,224 Pantawid beneficiaries here were enrolled in 2008 and will bow out of the program in 2013 in line with the five year span of the program.