For quite some time, the family relies on her husband’s income as a fisherman.
Isidra Donghil 35 years old housewife from Barangay Cuya in Ubay, is by no means poor, if one looks by her face. But she was.
Their lives could have been better had she gotten to college, as she could have better chances at landing a job. Married at am early age, she considers her family among the poorest.Her husband’s fishing income was all they had, on stormy days and moonlit nights when there are no fishing trips, there will be no income.
“Life was hard, that sometimes, our meal consists of soy sauce and lard.” she stammers as she narrated her life.
Her family lived in a small hut near the water.
“Its walls were discarded tarpaulin, the roof was nipa which flips during gale winds, all of us inside would get wet. We did not have electrical connection and as a mother, it is painful to see the kids study under the flickering glow of kerosene lamps,” she recalls sometimes visibly flinching from some painful memories she could not share as yet.
In an effort to fill in their needs, she sometimes goes with her husband fishing, or do chores that could earn her money to have something to feed the kids.
She was all too resigned to that nasty fate, when something came up which slowly changed their lives.
“It was in 2011 when the government implemented the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), and we were in, which gave us cash assistance for our children’s education,” she timidly went on.
The 4Ps offers conditional cash grants program to poor families who could send their children 0 to 8 years in school, improve their health, nutrition, and attend family development sessions (FDS), and implemented under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
“With money now to but for our children’s needs in school, we can save the very little that’s left from fishing,” she said.
“In time, we decided to build a sturdier safer and more comfortable house farther from the water. And we had a bit of savings enough to get us power connection,” Donghil shared this as a testimonial for their changed lives due to 4Ps.
FDS are monthly meetings where we learned and earned guides on how to cope up with the responsibility as a parent, obligations in the community, the importance of cooperation and participation, the gist of volunteerism and gained leadership skills.
I became a 4Ps parent leader, and since I like teaching, I soon served as the barangay Day Care worker.
In 2018, when a new president was elected, she began to worry as rumors have surfaced that the new administration is going to cut off the 4Ps.
“If that happens, how do we manage to continue sending the kids to school? We know that my husband’s income is barely enough for our daily needs, I begin to worry, she shared.
After weeks and months, they accordingly noticed that the program was enhanced even more.
“We were so happy when we heard the news that the new president, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has signed the law that institutionalized the 4Ps,” her voice still carrying that excitement she must have felt five years ago.
After the cash grants came the monthly Rice Subsidy, some additional benefit to make sure every 4Ps family can buy rice.
“There was an increase in the cash grant, and then we, for the first time, got hold of cash cards that we no longer have to take the queue to claim our benefits,” she said.
“Beyond the 4Ps, we started to feel the government programs that truly helped us make our lives easier: there was the Unconditional Cash Transfer, which included 3Ps members, then we learned that as indigents, we were automatic Philhealth members and could avail of the zero billing policy in government hospitals,” she started to enumerate on her benefits.
With these, she thanks God for guiding the government under the Duterte Administration to help the poor.
When the threat of the coronavirus disease came in 2020, life for the Donghil family again shivered in the test.
“We could not go fishing anymore due to the community quarantine restrictions, we thought we would slide back to our past, but then, the government was there to help the poor like us.”
First, there was the Social Amelioration Program, which had Donghil in the list of recipients of the financial assistance. This was a great help, as they were able to buy our food, hygiene kits like face masks, bath soap and other needs.
Sensing a sense of paying back, Donghil also offered herself as a volunteer in surveying family needs and giving out food packs and relief goods from the local government.
Months later, continuing its package of assistance to the poor, the government under the Duterte Administration handed out through the DSWD, financial assistance in the form of livelihood capital for the pandemic-affected families.
“Our family was among the beneficiaries, I continued on the small business we had in barbecue stand and grill while selling siakoy. This was a huge help in tiding up for our daily needs with the pandemic adding items to our daily costs,” she professed.
It was also this administration that decided right away to respond to the pandemic by giving free vaccines, which placed the members of the 4Ps and indigents in the priority list.
“I urge everyone who have not received the vaccine yet, to be there, as our chance of giving back to the government what it has been doing for us,” Donghil called.
“As I stand before you today, I am truly thankful to President Duterte for the better life we feel in the government’s pouring of help. I may not have reached success yet, but I trust in God that he would guide us to be models of the community in helping others get past whatever is holding them from betting out of poverty,” she capped.
Donghil’s testimonial for the Duterte Legacy Caravan going around in ten Bohol towns, was also a similar tune to the thousands of Filipinos who have felt an alleviation of the harder life they had in the past.
With this, Donghil’s sincere thanks to President Rodrigo Duterte for strongly implementing these programs under his Administration, sounded the same with the hundreds who found no venue for them to thank their leaders, for they could have disregarded the poor and stolen their money, but did not. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
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