DSWD project sends thousands of students to school

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is helping thousands of young Filipinos whose families are in crisis situations stay in school through the P4.2- billion Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) fund.

DSWD spokesman Assistant Secretary Javier Jimenez said education assistance was the most prevalent crisis assistance requested from their AICS social workers.

Fortunately, the AICS has been granted a multi-billion budget since 2014, he said.

For 2015, the AICS fund has enabled more than 42,300 students to stay in school.

“In 2014, we received almost P4.9 billion for our fund. With that amount, we were really able to expand the coverage,” Jimenez said.

“We had about P40 million in 2013, in 2012, it was also around P40 million. And this year, (2015) we have P4.2 billion,” he added.

The DSWD places emphasis on ensuring that indigent and underprivileged children and youth avail of opportunities to go to school with the help of the AICS.

The AICS is said to be a major measure of DSWD to provide immediate services to people in crisis or emergency situations.

The educational assistance given under the AICS program is aimed to help defray school expenses such as tuition, school supplies and transportation allowance.

The program has assisted 42,363 children for the first quarter of 2015.

“With school opening scheduled for next month, we are fast-tracking our assistance to needy children and youth to enable them to enroll, since we have always believed that education is the key in lifting themselves and their families out of poverty,” Jimenez said.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman however stressed the AICS is a limited financial assistance designed to augment the poor students’ immediate needs.

“Especially if the family is presently in crisis and is unable to raise the needed amount to continue sending their children to school. The amount of assistance that can be extended to clients ranges from P3,000 to P 25,000, based on the assessment of the social worker,” she said.

To avail of educational assistance, students have to go through the screening process where he or she has to submit documents required by the social worker, who will in turn conduct the interview and assessment and recommend the release of assistance.

“Clients” can avail of assistance once every three months. However, for clients who have been previously assisted, a social case study report

The Department of Energy ( DOE) is eyeing a partnership with Waze, the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla over the weekend said this was part of the implementation of a planned circular requiring oil players to provide weekly prices for each of their respective gasoline stations nationwide.

He said the idea is for Waze to include in its database information on gasoline companies’ retail prices “so that consumers can be better informed and have the option to choose the best prices.”

The information will be available once the energy department implements its circular.

“The DOE will talk to Waze. We want the information on oil prices incorporated in the Waze app,” Petilla said.

Waze connects drivers to one another, helping people create local driving communities that work together to improve the quality of everyone’s daily driving. It helps them avoid the frustration of sitting in traffic, cluing them in to a police trap or shaving five minutes off of their regular commute by showing them new routes, the company said in its website.

Petilla said the energy department is just waiting for oil prices to stabilize before it implements the proposed circular.

According to a draft department circular, a DOE-run website would post the prices of gas stations so consumers can see which station offers the lowest prices in a given period.

The move is part of the department’s efforts to be transparent and provide consumers and motorists a choice.

Oil firms, for their part, said they may have a hard time complying with this.

“We are already informing the DOE of our prices but for all the gasoline stations to have their prices published may be too tedious,” an oil company executive said.

At the same time, the source said, oil firms would be ready to comply should the DOE mandate this.

According to the DOE’s latest oil price monitoring report, year-to-date adjustments rose to a net P4.47 for gasoline and P2.01 for diesel while liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) had a net decrease of P4.60 per kilogram.