Some 30 to 40 percent of the 1.3 million alleged "non-poor" beneficiaries of government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) shouldn't be delisted yet, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo told the House Committee on Appropriations Tuesday, Sept. 6.
Tulfo, who led DSWD officials during their budget briefing before the House panel, cited information coming from the association of the poverty alleviation program's beneficiaries themselves.
Tulfo recalled how the recent identification of of 1.3 million non-poor out of the 4.4 million beneficiaries of 4Ps triggered complaints left and right. These supposed non-poor beneficiaries are under review as to whether or not they should remain under the program.
"Maging yung mga beneficiaries po, nagreklamo po (The beneficiaries themselves are complaining). Because they said, coming from a pandemic, wala naman sigurong yumaman (probably no one became rich)," he said.
Removal from the 4Ps list would suggest that the individual is no longer considered poor and thus no longer in need of aid, at least by government standards.
"Ang ginawa ko po to make sure na wala pong madede-list tayo, na ika nga mahirap, ang ginawa po natin ay nagpatawag po ako ng pulong sa asosasyon ng 4Ps beneficiaries (To make sure that none of the poor would end up getting delisted, what I did was call a meeting with the association of 4Ps beneficiaries)," he said.
"I met them three weeks ago, so I asked them the real status ng mga members po nila (of their members). And they told me sir na (that) out of the 1.3 million, they list around 30 to 40 percent daw po ay hindi pa dapat alisin sa listahan po namin (who should not be removed yet from our list).
"So I ask them if they can come up with a list kung sino po ang pwede nang alisin po namin (that would tell us who we can remove)," the DSWD chief recounted.
According to Tulfo, the agency will use not one, not two, but a total of four lists to cross-check the beneficiaries and determine who should graduate as non-poor.
These four lists include the 4Ps list, the Listahanan list, and DSWD Municipal Link list.
"Yun po ang mga safety net namin...na hindi po basta-basta matanggal yung kawawang tao dahil sa tinamaan siya ng listahanan (That is our safety net...so that no pitiful person would be unduly removed from the list).
"Pag siya po ay kasama po talaga doon sa non-poor na, then it's time to inform them na hindi na po kayo makakasama (But if the person is now included among the non-poor, then it's time to inform them that they can't be included in the program anymore)," Tulfo told the solons.