The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) so far identified 750,000 households that will replace the graduate-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), said Secretary Rex Gatchalian on Friday, Feb. 10.

Gatchalian said that when former Secretary Erwin Tulfo cleared the list of 4Ps beneficiaries last year, 800,000 households have been identified as graduates of the program.

“Itong mga grumaduate, na-meet na nila yung mga batayan na ang depinisyon sa kanila non-poor na sila. Hindi na sila mahirap at pwede na natin ibigay yung slot nila sa iba pang mga nangangailangan (These graduates have met the criteria that define them as non-poor. They are no longer poor, which means we can give their slot to other needy people),” he said in a GMA interview.

“Noong pumasok ako , naka-750,000 na na papalit sa kanila ang naitala galing doon sa huling database, yung Listahanan 2019-2020.(When I came in as DSWD secretary, 750,000 households have been identified from the latest database, the Listahanan 2019-2020, that will replace the graduates of the 4Ps program),” he pointed out.

The 4Ps is an investment in human capital, which aims to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty by focusing on the education and health of the beneficiaries.

It has two types of cash grants given to household-beneficiaries: health grant where each household receives P500 per month, or a total of P6,000 per year; and education grant where each child receives P300 per month for 10 months, or P3,000 per year.

A household can register a maximum of three children under the program.

‘Unified’ database

One of Gatchalian’s major priorities as DSWD chief is to organize the list of beneficiaries for better implementation of the government’s various social protection programs.

“Pag natapos mapuno na yung slot ng grumaduate , tigil na tayo doon. Aantayin na natin yung PSA mailabas yung bagong CBMS (When the slot of 4Ps graduate-beneficiaries have been filled, we will stop there. We will wait for the PSA to release the new CBMS),” he said.

Republic Act No. 11315, or the CBMS Act of 2019, enables the country’s adoption of a community-based monitoring system, which generates updated disaggregated data necessary in targeting beneficiaries, conducting more comprehensive poverty analysis and needs prioritization, designing appropriate policies and interventions and monitoring over time.

Gatchalian said he had a meeting with PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa on Thursday, Feb. 9 where they discussed the CBMS Law.

“Ang nakasaad sa batas na yun, by the end of this year, wala ng database na gagamitin kung hindi yung database ng CBMS. So talagang iu-unify na for easy reference (What is stated in that law, by the end of this year, there is no other database that will be used other than the CBMS database. So it will be unified for easy reference),” he said.

“Dahil sa batas na yun hindi na manganganak yung database ng DSWD. Kung ano yung database namin, yung Listahanan 2019-2020, yun na ang huling papatakbuhin na listahan (Because of that law, the DSWD database will no longer be updated. Our database, which is the Listahanan 2019-2020, will be the last list to run),” he added.

Listahanan is an information system used by DSWD to identify who and where poor households are nationwide, which can be used as a basis for targeting beneficiaries for social protection programs.