SOCIAL Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian yesterday said at least two million poor families are expected to “graduate” and forcibly exit the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program (4Ps) next year after staying in the program for the past seven years.
During the two-day 2025 post-SONA (State of the Nation Address) forum, Gatchalian echoed the call of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for Congress to amend the 4Ps Act, particularly the provision that limits a beneficiary’s stay in the program to seven years.
He said the length of stay of a beneficiary should not be the basis for their “graduation” from the program but one’s socio-economic status.
“Can you imagine, two million out of four million will be forced to exit next year because of the provisions of the law. And can you imagine, if you remove them from there, their lives will not be better, they will just return to a life of poverty,” he said.
He added that the investment in poor families would just go to waste if such happens.
Gatchalian said factors such as the coronavirus pandemic and spikes in prices of commodities brought by inflation have greatly eroded the purchasing power of 4Ps beneficiaries and their capability to adapt to economic shocks.
The President, in his fourth SONA, called for the amendment of Republic Act No. 11310 or the law that institutionalized the 4Ps in 2008.
It is a national poverty reduction strategy and human capital investment program of the government that provides conditional cash transfers to poor households for a maximum period of seven years to improve their children’s health, nutrition, and education.
More than 4.4 million households continue to benefit from the program.
