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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DSWD chief credits predecessor Tulfo for initiating reassessment of 1.4M families dropped from 4Ps

DSWD chief credits predecessor Tulfo for initiating reassessment of 1.4M families dropped from 4Ps

Published Aug 18, 2023 05:21 am

At A Glance

  • Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian has credited his predecessor, ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo, for ordering the reassessment of some 1.4 million families that had been delisted from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). 
  • Gatchalian vacated his House seat in early February to replace Tulfo as DSWD chief after the latter was bypassed by the Commission on Appointments (CA). 

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ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo (left), DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian (Facebook)

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian has credited his predecessor, ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo, for ordering the reassessment of some 1.4 million families that had been delisted from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

During the House Committee on Appropriations' deliberations on the DSWD's proposed 2024 budget on Thursday, Aug. 17, Gatchalian said that the current agency leadership "inherited" this reassessment and, as a result, imposed a moratorium on delisting for the meantime.

"There is a large swathe of 4Ps beneficiaries that were delisted, but it wasn't haphazardly done by anybody. Sumunod po sa proseso yun (It followed the process)," Gatchalian told the appropriations panel.

4Ps is the national government's flagship poverty alleviation program .

"Then-secretary and your colleague now, Congressman Tulfo had the good sense in him and the heart in him to order a reassessment of these two groups na, lumalabas [which totalled] 1.4 million. He did it because he believed that yun na nga, iba na ang litrato ng kahirapan, kaya dapat, rebesitahin natin sila (the face of poverty has changed, that's why a revisit was in order)," Gatchalian said.

The DSWD chief said the 1.4 million families included some "700,000 that were initially tagged as non-poor, dahil nga (because) they no longer meet the indicators in the Proxy Means Test (PMT)".

"But after the lockdown, the 700,000 carme back to the department and said, after the Covid, "Humirap po kami ulit (We are poor again)." And rightfully so.

"Alam naman natin na yung dating nakalabas na sa kahirapan, bumabalik sa kahirapan dahil sa lockdown at the masamang effect ng lockdown (We're aware that those who managed to get out of poverty was pulled back into its fold due to the lockdown and the negative effects of lockdowns)," Gatchalian said.

"So namana po natin yun, yung proseso na yun (So we inherited that process)," added the former Valenzuela City 2nd district representative. Gatchalian vacated his House seat in early February to replace Tulfo as DSWD chief after the latter was bypassed by the Commission on Appointments (CA).

Meanwhile, Tulfo was added to roll of the House of Representatives last July 24.

Gatchalian hinted that the moratorium will last until September, or pending the results of another, less rigid test called the Social Welfare Development Indicators (SWDI).

"Right now we are doing the Proxy Means SWDI test to the 1.4 million Filipino families to make sure that they actually are poor or not poor. By end of September, malalaman kung ilan mede-delist (We'll know how many will be delisted)," he said.

Related Tags

Rex Gatchalian Erwin Tulfo DSWD ACT-CIS Party-list 4Ps
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