TANAUAN, Leyte- Over 12,000 families from this town are to receive financial assistance worth P10,000 from the Department of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD). The distribution of the financial assistance, involving families whose houses were destroyed during the onslaught of Yolanda, started last October 3. About 12,000 families from 47 villages of said town stand to receive the cash assistance, Mayor Pelagio Tecson Jr. said. The P10,000 cash assistance is on top of the P20,000 worth of cash voucher that the municipal government and the DSWD distributed last month for the families living in seven coastal barangays of the town. For this cash assistance to Tanauan, one of the hard-hit towns in Leyte due to Yolanda, the national government allocated P120 million. Mayor Tecson stressed that the cash assistance should only be used to rebuild houses and should the owners repaired their houses, use the money to improve them. “If your house needs to be painted, buy and paint your house. If you don’t have a terrace then put a terrace. You’re not allowed to use it for other purposes aside from house renovation and improvement,” Tecson said. Personnel from the DWSD will visit every barangay and monitor all recipients if they used the cash assistance according to the purpose, the town mayor said. “The government had trusted us when we present this proposal to them. Therefore we should not disappoint them,” Tecson added,” Tecson said. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
