Vice Governor Dennis “Delta” Pineda together with Provincial DOLE Director Arlene Tolentino and DOLE Regional Representative Alex Inza Cruz personally led the distribution of the checks worth P7,600 each at Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center.
In a brief speech, Cruz said 60 percent or P4,560 of the amount received by each beneficiary was funded by the provincial government while the remaining 40 percent or P3,040 was provided by DOLE.
“So out of the P80-million budget of DOLE for the SPES, about 30 percent or P25-million was given to the province of Pampanga. This is because of our good correlation with the provincial government, local government also with the other towns and municipalities,” Cruz added.
Among the benefiaries of the SPES program are the youth from the different municipalities of Pampanga who are currently enrolled either to a public or private school and belongs to the indigent families in the community.
According to Luningning Vergara, PESO chief, these students were tasked to assist in the barangay civil registry in profiling different households similar to conducting census for 20 working days.
During the event, Vice-Governor Pineda reiterated his call in fighting against the use of prohibited drugs to the youth.
“I hope the youth know, that with the new administration the concentration is on illegal drugs. We, the governor and the provincial government are asking you to warn your friends or anyone you know that needs our help. By next week, there will be a program for those who wants to surrender. You can directly go to a nearby police station in your town. The governor and I will face you and we already deliberated on funding their rehabilitation. All I ask of you is to prioritize your studies so you can graduate,” Pineda added.
Also present in the event were 1st district board member Cherry Manalo, third district board members Rosve Henson and Jun Canlas, and Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management chief Angie Blanco who also assisted the vice-governor in the distribution.
