PGMA doubles allocation for govt’s pro-poor programs to P10 billion
MANILA, Philippines–Preparing for the worst while hoping for the best, Malacanang said that the P5 billion allocation for the government’s pro-poor subsidy programs will be raised to P10 billion next year in an effort to soften the impact of the global economic whiplash especially on the poorest of the poor Filipino families.
The Cabinet reached the decision to double the budget of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Pantawid Pamilya Program at its meeting this morning amid projections that the full impact of the worsening global economic crunch will be felt next year.
In 2006, or two years before the Wall Street collapse triggered the current global crisis, the President launched the Pantawid Pamilya Program in response to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
Briefing newsmen covering Malacanang after the Cabinet meeting, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the additional allocation of P5 billion released last week for the Pantawid Pamilya Program would double the number of beneficiaries from 320,000 households or one million children to 640 households are nearly two million children attending school.
Cabral said the President has given her until the first quarter of next year to identify the beneficiaries of the program who will be given cash assistance.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.– Teatro Angeleno announces its casting call for “Hombre,” a tragicomedy about a gay man’s heartbreak on the eve of his boyfriend’s wedding.
New Year’s Eve benefit gala builds schools in rural Asia
SAN DIEGO, Calif.– Beyond Productions will host the first annual New Year’s Eve Benefit Gala “One World 2009” at Jasmine Restaurant on December 31, 2008.
6 December, Chula Vista Holiday Tree Lighting and 46th Annual Starlight Parade
The community is invited to celebrate the start of the holiday season at the 46th annual Chula Vista Starlight Parade.
Video: Filipino Sailors Face Pirates and Financial Crisis
EDITORIALS
From the Publisher's Desk
Stress the Holiday
The holiday is upon us and everyone is in mad dash to get the perfect gift for their families and loved ones. Studies have shown that it is through the holidays that people get stressed out the most and have therefore caused some strain in relationships, financial, emotional etc. aspects of our lives.
And now let us welcome the New Year
Full of things that have never been.
-Rainier Maria Rilke
SAN DIEGO, Calif.– “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job,” President Harry Truman once observed, “and it’s a depression when you lose your own.” As downturns in the global economy disturb more and more households, we begin to question seriously the financial yardstick by which we have been measuring our personal net worth and therefore our happiness.
HOUSTON, Tex.– An old year – 2008 - has almost completed its course. A new year – 2009 - is smiling at us with twelve months of the unknown. An entire ocean of possibilities, including both sun-drenched days and a few storms with howling winds and giant waves, stretch out across the uncharted waters. If we let ourselves, we could become so afraid of the potential dangers, so safety conscious, we would miss the adventure.
LOS ANGELES, Cailf.–After quietly celebrating Christmas Day, many people must now face reality and ask themselves: What’s ahead in 2009? How are we going to cope?
The Wisdom of our lawmakers in treating the Filipino Equity Bill
Our struggles for honor and dignity as Filipino American veterans of World War II bears witness to the fact that 64 years fighting for benefits due them is still an elusive issue which the 110th Congress failed to act considerably in favor of the surviving vets who served under the American flag.
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