Cagayan de Oro City — An honor student in Gingoog City, some two hours ride from here, calls for his fellow grantees of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (Pantawid Pamilya) to capitalize on education and health and not waste the opportunity and the cash grants provided under the program.
In a recently concluded commencement exercise of Bal-ason National High School, 15-year old Jachor Mc Collins Calvo Opaon of Barangay Hindangon, Gingoog City, stressed to both students and parents who attended the activity that, “what we are enjoying now is a gift that must be capitalized on,” adding that “ once these opportunities are put to waste, there is no way to bring the past back and it is sad to look back on the opportunities wasted and lingered on the ‘what-if’s.’
Jachor is all praises with Pantawid Pamilya, expressing gratitude to President Benigno Aquino III and to DSWD for promoting and implementing the program. He says Pantawid Pamilya has been helping him and his parents.
“The meager income of my mother, a Barangay Nutrition Scholar, and father, a farmer, is not enough to supplement all the needs of my family,” Jachor discloses, adding that, “Now, with the cash grants, we have a budget for our education.”
He also thanked his parents for pushing him to be the best that he could be and for always reminding him the importance of education to whatever dreams he has in the near future.
Academic Achiever
Jachor is among the millions of Pantawid Pamilya grantees in the country who will move on up after completing his Grade 9 studies in Bal-ason National High School in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental province.
In the recently concluded recognition ceremonies, Jachor is the top one in his class. He also received the Best in English, Best in Science, Best in Filipino, Best in MAPEH, Best in Art awards. The city government of Gingoog through Mayor Marie Guingona also recognized him as outstanding Grade 9 student in the city.
Active Student
In a generation where youth is synonymous with the social media and mobile phone applications and gaming, Jachor struggles to become effective and focus on family, education, values education, and decorum, instead.
Like his elementary years, Jachor manifested his grace and enthusiasm through his active involvement in his community and school.
He was an editorial writer participant in the Regional School Press Conference, a science quiz bee finalist, among others. He tries to balance his curricular and extra-curricular activities to develop a well-rounded character.
He once bagged third place at the Mathematics challenge, MTAP (Mathematics Teachers Association of the Philippines) contest.
Pantawid Pamilya is a government’s poverty-reduction strategy that provides cash grants to extremely poor households aimed at helping them raise educated and healthy children aged 18 years and below.
It utilizes the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme where beneficiaries receive cash grant provided that they send their children to school, get preventive health check-up, and the parents attend the monthly Family Development Session.
Jachor is one of the 8,818 household grantees of Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental of Pantawid Pamilya. Currently, Northern Mindanao has 271,077 active household beneficiaries of the program.###smu
Written by Oliver Badel Inodeo, DSWD Northern Mindanao with reports from Skye Stephan Reyes (SWA in Gingoog City).
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