More than two hundred persons with disabilities (PWDs) and sari-sari store owners in Cebu City received
aid from the office of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
on Saturday.
Cayetano’s office partnered with DSWD Region VII to extend livelihood assistance to
PWD athletes in the city
under the agency’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) which aims
to improve the socio-economic status of indigent
and marginalized Filipino
households by providing
them with financial capital
and skills training to engage in livelihood, among
others.
Among the recipients were some members
of the Philippine Accessible Disability Services
(PADS) Dragon Boat Race
Team, who won silver and
bronze medals in the 16th
World Dragon Boat Racing Championships of the
International Dragon Boat
Federation (IDBF) held in
Thailand last August.
The distribution
of the financial aid was
done in coordination with
Cebu City Councilor Philip
Zafra.
Meanwhile, a total of 150 sari-sari store
owners were given aid by
Cayetano’s office through
the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations
(AICS) program of the
DSWD.
The beneficiaries
are part of Cayetano’s Sari-saring Pag-asa community, an initiative which he
formally launched in 2021
in which he would provide
capital to select sari-sari
store owners struggling to
stay afloat amid the pandemic.
Fittingly, the disbursement was held in
the barangay hall’s multipurpose building, which
was funded by Cayetano. Present in the activity
were Cebu City 2nd District Representative Eduardo Rama Jr. and Barangay Labangon Chairman
Victor Buendia.
Cayetano’s Tulong-Medikal team also set
up a medical help desk for
indigent patients in need
of assistance with their
medical expenses such as
hospital bills, maintenance
medicine, laboratory exams, and medical procedures.
The back-to-back
disbursement of assistance was part of Cayetano’s mission to work with
various government agencies and local government
units to empower poor Filipinos and vulnerable sectors across the country
