The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Thursday, Oct. 26 assured that the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) cannot in any way be used for electioneering or other partisan political activities
“Sa atin pong mga kababayan, kahit sino pong mangako sa inyo na kayo’y mapapasama sa 4Ps program, malamang hindi ho magkatotoo ‘yan. DSWD personnel din lang po ang makakapag-assess po sa inyo—hindi po kahit sinong kandidato (To our fellow citizens, no matter who promises you that you will be included in the 4Ps program, it will probably not come true. Only DSWD personnel will be able to assess you—not any candidate),” DSWD spokesperson Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez said.
The 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan election (BSKE) candidates will run their campaigns between Oct. 19 and 28. The elections will be conducted on Oct. 30.
The National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) or Listahanan is the only tool used to identify the profile of poor beneficiaries, said 4Ps National Program Management Office (NPMO) Director Gemma Gabuya.
However, Gabuya emphasized that the Listahanan is only a database that can be used to identify who and where the poor are, and that it does not ensure the provision of cash assistance or automatic inclusion in the 4Ps.
Reassessment of ‘delisted’ 4Ps beneficiaries
The 4Ps NPMO conducted a reassessment of 1,158,249 non-poor 4Ps households using the Social Welfare and Development Indicators (SWDI) from July to September, following DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian’s memorandum to defer the exit of non-poor beneficiaries.
The reassessment revealed that 761,150 households are not yet ready to exit the program, while 339,660 beneficiaries are already at the self-sufficiency level, Gabuya said.
“Isa sa main factors is the Covid kasi maraming nawalan ng trabaho. Alam naman natin na ang mga 4Ps, ang mga trabaho nila hindi naman talaga matataas yung kanilang mga income (One of the main factors is the COVID because many lost their jobs. We know that 4Ps members do not have huge income),” she explained.
The 4Ps is a human capital development program that aims to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty among poor households by investing in the health, nutrition, and education of poor households.
In 2019, the program was institutionalized as a regular program of the DSWD and a national poverty reduction strategy of the national government through Republic Act 11310 or the 4Ps Law.
Under the law, the program beneficiaries will now only be covered for a maximum of seven years and will be closely monitored using the social case management process.