By Chito Chavez  A militant women’s group promoting people’s rights maintained that “institutionalizing 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) means institutionalizing poverty.” 4Ps is the government's flagship anti-poverty program first introduced and implemented during the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. It seeks to “save” the poorest from poverty by doling out cash assistance. The Center for Women’s resources (CWR), a 36-year old research and training organization for women said the current implementation of the “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) merely reflects the inadequacies of the government in providing basic social services and its failure to eliminate the roots of poverty in the country.” CWR executive director Jojo Guan noted that 4Ps has remained as a temporary relief and could never alleviate poverty. “One of the criticisms on 4Ps is how it disables Filipinos from becoming self-sustaining and independent. The 4P’s dole-out mechanism gives an illusion that the government provides all the necessary financial assistance to cover the basic needs of families,” Guan said. In essence, Guan asserted that 4Ps simply distracts people from demanding employment and sustainable livelihood opportunities, and accessible, affordable and good quality government services for health, education, housing, and disaster response. After more than a decade of implementation of this program, the Quezon City based group noted the living condition of millions of Filipinos did not significantly improve. Despite the lack of apparent success of the program, CWR stressed it was implemented by governments after Arroyo. Not enough Guan questioned the timing of the signing of the 4Ps Law, citing that the current administration has pushed for the institutionalization of 4Ps amidst questions and controversies on the inefficient implementation of the program on the ground. “The DSWD has yet to complete the assessment of the 4Ps; and there is still a pending motion to conduct on-site hearings to evaluate the impacts of 4Ps on the beneficiaries. Why institutionalize 4Ps when it has yet to prove its value as a program? It would be a waste of public money,” Guan asked. According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), 4Ps only provides a health grant of P500 ($9.67) per household every month or a total of P6,000 ($116) every year; and an education grant of P300 ($5.8) per child every month for ten months, or a total of P3,000 ($58) every year. A household may register a maximum of three children for the program. With the current implementation of TRAIN Law, DSWD has added P200 ($3.87) as unconditional cash transfer (UCT) and P600 ($11.61) as rice subsidy to the monthly dole-out. Despite the implementation of the 4Ps, CWR maintained the beneficiaries could hardly cover their needs without decent and permanent employment or sustainable livelihood. CWR said the total amount has remained inadequate even to the very conservative and unrealistic family living wage estimate of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) at P P10,481 a month for a family of five. Based on the most recent estimate of think-tank IBON Foundation, a family of five living in the National Capital Region (NCR) needs at least P 23,000 to live decently and cover all basic food and non-food needs. The group noted the program is receiving billions in budget every year, “yet there are only 4.179 million active household beneficiaries from 1,483 municipalities in the Philippines that benefitted from the program since 2008, which is still a far cry from the 21.6 million poor Filipinos who supposedly need assistance from the government.” It added that currently, the government has allocated P88.1 billion ($1.7 billion) for the 4Ps in the 2019 national budget. “In the end, what poor families need from the government are not dole-outs, but decent and regular work with living wage, access to free and quality education, and access to basic social services,” Guan concluded.