Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian disclosed on Tuesday, Aug. 15, that some 1.4 million Filipino families who consider themselves poor after the pandemic are currently awaiting the results of the agency’s reassessment if they can be included in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

Jeepney drivers wearing face masks queue up to receive food packs from a concerned citizen on a road in Manila on Aug. 6, 2020. (AFP / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)

Of the 1.4 million families who described themselves to be poor, 700,000 were those initially tagged as non-poor before the pandemic but now believe themselves to be poor again while another 700,000 have yet to be assessed because of the lockdown.

“Kung matatandaan natin ang 4Ps is 4.4 million households ang kasama diyan so imagine ninyo 1.4 ang nagkaroon ng aberya (If you can recall, our 4Ps is around 4.4 million households so you can imagine 1.4 had problems),” he explained during a Palace press briefing.

“Eh ayaw namang madaliin ng departamento na bigla na lang natin magde-delist or sasabihin natin hindi nila sila rerebisitahin ulit (The department doesn’t want to be careless to just delist them or say we won’t revisit them anymore,” he added as to why there was a reassessment of the DSWD’s Listahan 3 beneficiaries.

While Gatchalian’s predecessor, former Social Welfare secretary Erwin Tulfo had the “good sense” of ordering a reassessment of the 700,000 families who requested for a revisit, he could not push through with it because the department had no more budget.

“Now pumasok ako ng February, tinuloy natin iyong reassessment na iyon pati na rin iyong hindi nagalaw na 700,000 – (When I was appointed in February, we continued with the reassessment including the other 700,000 that were not reassessed),” he said.

But during the reassessment using the Proxy Means Test, the DSWD was dissatisfied with the results since some 60 percent are still being delisted despite seeing their poor conditions.

Gatchalian shared that the agency had to consult with poverty experts, including Undersecretary Dennis Mapa, who developed the test “years ago.”

“Lumalabas na iyong (It shows that the) Proxy Means Test na ginagamit natin is not calibrated with the new levels of poverty brought about by the lockdown. Kumbaga (In short) it was capturing poverty pre-Covid but it was not necessarily capturing poverty post-Covid lockdown,” the official said in explaining the “misalignment.”