CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- A total of 67,704 beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in Northern Mindanao region have already been considered as ‘non-poor’ by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) region 10.

That these beneficiaries are no longer poor is a manifestation of an effective program implemented by the government, said DSWD-10 director Mari-Flor Dollaga said during a press conference on Wednesday, July 20.

“Ibig sabihin nito, epektibo ang programa ng gobyerno. Because pag-intervene ng 4Ps sa buhay nila, nabigyan sila ng ayuda (This means that the program of the government has been effective. Because when 4Ps intervened in their lives, they were given assistance),” Dollaga said.

“Along the way, nakakita sila’g higayon (they saw a chance) to improve their living, labaw nato’ng pang-ekonomiya sa pamilya (especially to family’s economy),” she added.

Consequently, these beneficiaries who are considered as non-poor need to be removed from the list as the primary objective of 4Ps is for them to get through poverty, clarified Dollaga.

Kenneth Haze Sanchez Lustre, the 4Ps regional project coordinator, in the same press briefing, explained that the beneficiaries who will graduate - considered non-poor - will be informed by the DSWD through their family development sessions.

“Pero dili lang ni basta-basta nga estorya kay atong balikan unsa ilang mga milestones, unsa ilang na achieve isip usa ka beneficiary sa program (This is not just a talk because we would go back and determine their milestones and what they have achieved as a beneficiary of the program),” Lustre said.

According to the data given by the DSWD-10, the region has a total of 340,408 registered household beneficiaries, of which 279,357 are active individuals.

Aside from the 67,704 beneficiaries considered as non-poor, there were also 60,000 beneficiaries who will be delisted due to inactive participation.

Under the 4Ps, to avail cash grants, beneficiaries should comply with the conditions.

Pregnant women must get pre and postnatal care, and be attended by a skilled/trained professional during a childbirth; parents or guardians must attend responsible family development sessions; children 0-5 years old must receive regular preventive health checkups and vaccines; children 3-5 years old must attend daycare or preschool classes at least 85% of the time; children 6-14 years old must enroll in elementary or high school and attend at least 85% of the time; and, children 6-14 years old must avail of deworming pills every five months.

Lustre said the new Listahanan will possibly be released by September and the DSWD-10, specifically the 4Ps department, would be the assigned office to filter the list in order to identify who would be included in the program as beneficiaries.

Listahanan is the national targeting system of the national government that identifies poor households after an enumeration every three years.

She added that the province with higher poverty incidence, based on the recent data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), will be prioritized for the 4Ps by the national government.

4Ps is a poverty reduction strategy that provides grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14.

It provides conditional grants to the beneficiaries such as P6,000 a year or P500 per month per household for health and nutrition expenses, and P3,000 for one school year or 10 months or P300 / month per child for educational expenses. A maximum of three children per household is allowed.