ILOILO CITY –A total of 77 staff under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program have recently graduated from a Leadership course.

These staff are mostly members of City/Municipal Action team (C/MAT), Provincial Action Team (PAT) and Regional Action Team (RAT) at their respective provinces who are in-charged in the implementation, planning, monitoring and evaluation of social protection programs that are  targeting the poor based on the National Household Targeting System (NHTS-PR) or Listahanan.

Recently, Sec. Judy Taguiwalo personally graced the colloquium program at the Amigo Terrace Hotel here.

Taguiwalo said the program aims to enhance the staffs’ skills and the most important thing is to really improve the delivery of our services for the communities in need.

“I like this kind of initiative, the colloquium. We are bringing them together and then casting them again. With this, we form personnel who are dynamic and are advanced in their field,” she said.

On the other hand, regional director Rebecca Geamala said the strategy was envisioned for a greater impact in sustaining both the social adequacy and economic benefits gained by beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilya.

“These structures are comprised by DSWD poverty reduction frontline workers from three core programs of the DSWD (KALAHI-CIDSS NCDDP, SLP and Pantawid) tasked to collaboratively work together and muster each efforts to ensure convergence is happening at the ground and results are measured toward leveling up the well-being of the poor,” she said.

TARGET PARTICIPANTS

 There was a total of 101 participants to the Leadership program.

They were elected and enrolled to the program through a Personnel Development Resolution 002 series of 2016 endorsing all 101 City and Municipal Action Teams (CMAT) leaders for the program.

Aside from 77 Pantawid staff, other staff came from other programs such as Kalahi-CIDSS and SLP.

City Link (CL) Jessarel Sebido of Roxas City said she is very lucky to be one of the participants of the said program.

“This is one of the most exciting and challenging part of being a leader. It helped me develop my leadership skills, improve my service to beneficiaries and capacitate me to transform communities,” she said.

Sebido also said that she will forever cherish all the learning experiences, good relationship with other participants and apply necessary information to improve her implementation of the different services offered by the department.

“I can now say that I am not only a leader but a bridging leader who will be the arm of the agency to bridge the gap between poverty and improved level of well-being. If this is God’s plan for me, well, I will still be grateful and continue my journey as a public servant. I may not be a social work by profession but I know I am a social work by heart and by passion,” she ended./dswd/Montesa G. Caoyonan