Cebu City lawmaker to give cash aid to poor families

MANILA, Philippines – A neophyte congresswoman from Cebu City vowed yesterday to give cash assistance as well as educational and livelihood benefits to every poor family in her congressional district using her pork barrel funds.

Cebu City Rep. Rachel Marguerite del Mar said she will allot P25,000 for free medicine and hospitalization for members of poor families.

Del Mar, daughter of former House deputy speaker Raul del Mar, said another P10,000 will be earmarked for maintenance medicine for senior citizens; and mother and child pre-natal, safe delivery and post-natal services.

She said she will introduce the necessary legislation and use her Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel to carry out these programs.

Each congressman is supposed to have access to P70 million in PDAF. Senators’ PDAF is about P250 million each.

Earlier, there was a proposal in the House of Representatives to scrap the PDAF but this was immediately shot down by the chamber’s incoming leadership.

Del Mar did not say how many poor families there are in her district.

She said she will continue the Pan Del Mar Nutrition project for public school children as well as upgrade facilities and services of the Guba Community Hospital, the Cebu City Medical Center and the various health centers.

Del Mar said her programs will also improve the services of day care centers, enhance English proficiency in elementary and high schools for competitive advantage, offer free college IT course (two-year Associate in Computer Technology), increase the employability of graduates through technical-vocational courses, and strengthen industry-academe linkage.

She said she is determined to develop entrepreneurship training in livelihood programs like commercial cooking, food processing, Panginabuhi sa Panahi, and sari-sari store and carinderia management, among others.

Del Mar said she will venture on micro-financing for the initial capital of small businesses to foster self-reliance and budget management.

She said her long-term projects include the promotion of investments and tourism through government-private sector partnership.

She is also eyeing the establishment of the Cebu City Economic Development Zone, modern mass transit system, the Cebu City-Mactan undersea tunnel, and widening of roads, flyovers and skyways.

Del Mar said she will also push the approval and implementation of the Magna Carta for the Poor and initiatives to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.

“My legislative agenda will focus on health, education, livelihood and progress for which the acronym H.E.L.P. stands for,” she said.