SOCIAL Welfare Secretary Erwin Tulfo yesterday told lawmakers 30 to 40 percent of the 1.3 million beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) who will be dropped from the program would be retained in the list of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Tulfo, during the budget hearing of his agency’s proposed P197 billion budget for 2023, said a stringent verification made by DSWD personnel.
Tulfo last month announced the delisting of the 1.3 million families as 4Ps beneficiaries in response to President Marcos’ directive for the DSWD to “clean” its list of 4.4 million.
Militant lawmakers have said the decision was based on what they said was a “very unrealistic and low poverty threshold of P12,082 per month for the food and non-food needs of the family.”
The DSWD has set aside P115 billion for the 4Ps program under its proposed 2023 budget.
Tulfo said the DSWD came up with the figure after a consultation with a group of 4Ps beneficiaries.
“Ang ginawa ko po to make sure na walang made-delist tayo na ika nga ay mahirap, ang ginawa po natin ay nagpatawag po ako ng pulong sa asosasyon po ng 4Ps beneficiaries, and I met them three weeks ago (What we did to make sure that no poor will be delisted, we called for a meeting with the association of 4Ps beneficiaries and I met them three weeks ago). I asked them the real status ng mga member nila (of their members) and they told me that out of the 1.3 million, on their list is around 30 to 40 percent daw po ay hindi pa dapat alisin sa listahan namin (should not be removed from our list),” he told lawmakers.
“Out of the 4.4 million 4Ps beneficiaries that the government has right now, we have identified around 1.3 million Filipinos that are non-poor anymore. However, some of the lawmakers — when we came up with the list and it came out to the media — objected.
Maging iyong mga beneficiary, nagreklamo po because they said, coming from the pandemic, wala naman sigurong yumaman kahit kaunti lamang (Even the beneficiaries complained because, they said, no one got rich during the pandemic),” said the social welfare secretary.
Tulfo however said the DSWD’s and the 4Ps’ beneficiaries’ lists will still be compared to the list of the municipal link and the National Household Targeting System to make sure that one will wrongfully be dropped from the list.
The former journalist said households that will be removed from the 4Ps list would be informed before being delisted, adding that they may still apply for assistance from other DSWD programs such as the sustainable livelihood program and the assistance to individuals in crisis situations.
“So we will have four lists to compare para masiguro. Iyon po ang safety net namin na hindi basta-bastang matagal po iyong kawawang tao dahil sa tinamaan siya ng listahan (So we will have four lists to compare just to be sure. This is our safety net to make sure that no indigents will be removed because he was delisted),” he said.
Under the 4Ps law, beneficiaries can exit the program once the following grounds are met: the last monitored child in the household is already 19 years old, the household’s youngest child has already graduated from senior high school, the household has reached the seven-year duration in the program, when a household commits offenses or violates conditions for the cash grant, voluntary exit on the part of the beneficiary, and DSWD deeming a household non-poor based on evaluation.
Tulfo also told lawmakers that the P66.2 million budget for the cash benefit of 662 million centenarians has no funding under the proposed 2023 national budget, like the P500 increase in the social pension of indigent senior citizens, which is worth at least P24.5 billion.
He said the Department of Budget and Management could not grant the department’s request for the government to fund the Centenarians Act, which provides P100,000 cash to Filipinos who reached 100 years old and above.
“We submitted a request to the DBM which they did not grant. They are informed that there are 662 Filipino centenarians waiting. Kaya iyong social pension saka iyong sa centenarians, sana po mapondohan kasi baka hindi na nila abutin. (So we’re hoping that the social pension and the centenarians will be funded because they may no longer be here to reap the benefits),” Tulfo said.
The secretary also appealed to Congress to increase DSWD’s budget for Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations which was only given P19 billion which is P20 billion lower than what the department requested for.
