COOPERATION. Townsfolk of Lila, a coastal municipality in Bohol province, are seen working in a farm-to-market road concreting sub-project, in this undated photo. DSWD-7 regional director Shalaine Marie Lucero on Monday (Feb. 13, 2023) said family members affected by the Covid-19 pandemic were among those who benefitted from the PHP16.9 million government grant.(Photo courtesy of DSWD-7) CEBU CITY - Breadwinners of families who lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic have benefited from the PHP16.9 million worth of poverty alleviation projects implemented in Bohol's coastal town of Lila, a social welfare official said Monday. Shalaine Marie Lucero, regional director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Central Visayas, said Lila's municipal government received a community grant of PHP7.6 million from the Kapangyarihan at Kaunlaran sa Barangay (KKB) funding. KKB is a modality of the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) program which aims to help the poor localities improve their livelihood as well as address the lack of access to basic social services. Lucero said the amount helped family beneficiaries of the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program (BP2P) organized by the government to assist people who wanted to go back home to their home provinces at the height of the global public health crisis. A total of 653 households benefited from the program. They were from the villages of Calvario (184); Bonkokan Ilaya (140); Macalingan (122); Lomanoy (111)and Candulang (96). "The program provides holistic interventions to families affected by the pandemic. Municipalities that availed of these funds must have at least 25 families working in the highly urbanized cities who lost their jobs from pandemics and opted to return to their respective provinces for good," she told the Philippine News Agency. Through the fund, Lila put a health station in the village of Macalingan and concreted four farm-to-market roads totaling 0.655 kilometers in Barangays Bonkokan Ilaya, Candulang, Lomanoy, and Calvario. Apart from the PHP7.6 million development grant, Lucero said the town also received a 14-unit isolation facility worth PHP9.3 million through the additional financing (AF) modality of the program to support and augment its resources for health as the 5th-class agricultural municipality is still reeling from the effects of the pandemic. One of the beneficiaries, Marla Flor Biangcong, cited the project for helping her and other workers displaced by lockdowns and border restrictions. "As a beneficiary of the Balik Probinsiya Program, I am thankful because not only did I receive assistance for my family but my return to my hometown contributed to projects for the community," Biangcong said, referring to the small-scale infrastructure project where she played an important role as a volunteer. (PNA) }