The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is now investigating reports of a religious cult supposedly collecting the cash grant of its members who are part of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). 

Secretary Rex Gatchalian defends the proposed P207.37-billion budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) before the Senate Finance subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. According to Gatchalian, they need such amount to fund the agency's flagship projects like the Food Stamp Program and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), among others. (Senate PRIB Photo)

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian made this assurance during the Senate finance subcommittee hearing on the proposed P207.37-billion budget of the agency on Wednesday, September 20, 2023. 

Two senators, Senators Risa Hontiveros and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, each filed a resolution calling for a Senate probe into the activities of the Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc.—alleged religious cult in Surigao del Norte. 

Over 1,000 minors and their families are reportedly members of the cult. Most of them are allegedly beneficiaries of the state’s cash assistance program.

According to the senators, the group has been subjecting the minors to rape, sexual violence, child abuse and even forced marriage. At the same time Dela Rosa alleged that the group is linked to the illegal drug trade.

“As a matter of practice, what is for the beneficiary is for the beneficiary. It’s against the creed of the department when may tumabas, no matter kung sino man yan (whoever violates, no matter who it is), no government official, no private individual can take what is given directly to the beneficiary,” Gatchalian told senators during the hearing.

“We have taken stock of the privilege speech of the good senator, Madame Chair, and we took inventory immediately of how many 4Ps households we have there. But obviously, these are initial numbers because it could not be in just one sitio but in more sitios,” he said in response to Hontiveros who expressed concern that the government might be unknowingly funding a cult. 

“In Sitio Kapihan, for example, we have 74 households na 4Ps beneficiaries. In that barangay itself, Barangay Siring, we have 503 households,” he pointed out. 

Gatchalian said they will provide the Senate an update on their investigation. 

“We’ve already spoken about getting our city links and our municipal links to pry into the well-being of these 4Ps beneficiaries in that area,” he said. 

“Whenever we get allegations of AICS (assistance to individuals in crisis situations) misuse, we take it seriously, and even here in the central office, in any of our field office,” he said, adding that the agency’s regional director is already looking into the AICS track distribution in the area. 

Gatchalian also said they will look into the beneficiaries of AICS in that region, particularly zeroing in on those barangays, sitios that are in the peripheral of the site of the religious cult.

“And then we can do backtracking and our standard investigation tracks also…We will immediately copy furnish the office of the committee as well as the office of the good senator on the findings of the 4Ps as well as the AICS clusters,” he said.