JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra yesterday thumbed down the proposal of the Department of Interior and Local Government not to give subsidies to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, who would not get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Guevarra said those who have qualified for the anti-poverty program are legally entitled to the conditional cash transfer benefits, provided they comply with all the conditions of Republic Act 11310 or the Conditional Cash Transfer law.
He said the cash transfer is a transaction between the government, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the qualified household beneficiaries.
“Under the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021, vaccination cards shall not be an additional mandatory requirement for government transactions, among others. Hence, non-vaccination against COVID-19 cannot be a ground for suspension or termination of conditional cash transfer benefits if the beneficiary household has already qualified, and continues to qualify, under the 4Ps act,” Guevarra said.
The DILG proposal came after it said that reports from mayors around the country showed many of the more than four million 4Ps beneficiaries have not been inoculated against COVID-19, and some even refused vaccination.
To remedy the situation, Interior Undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said the department has proposed to “disincentivize” the unvaccinated among the 4Ps beneficiaries.
Under RA 11310, commonly known as the 4Ps Act which was signed by President Duterte in August 2019, a beneficiary family will receive a monthly subsidy of P3,450 divided into P750 as health and nutrition grant, P600 in rice subsidy, and educational grant amounting to P300, P500 or P700 depending on the level of student, for up to three children per household beneficiary.
Several senators as well as Vice President Leni Robredo have opposed the DILG’s proposal, calling it coercive and anti-poor.
Earlier yesterday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año justified the proposal, saying it is for the protection of the poor. But he also said the DILG would not insist on its proposal if concerned government agencies liked the DSWD would not approve it.
“Our real intention there is we are after their protection and for their safety against COVID-19,” said Año, a key member of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“If they get sick due to COVID-19, that requires a lot of expenditures. Where will they get money? Of course they will go to government hospitals,” he also said.
Malaya, in an interview over the CNN Philippines, said local government officials were pushing to disincentive the 4Ps beneficiaries who refuse to be vaccinated because “there is difficulty on the part of local government units to have their 4Ps beneficiaries vaccinated.”
“This is not just DILG proposal. This is actually a result of the clamor of our local government units for help from DILG to have some sort of disincentive on the part of 4Ps beneficiaries,” he said.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, chief of the National Task Force for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (NTF), said the subsidy can be delayed and given after the beneficiary gets vaccinated. It will not be forfeited, he said.
He also said some of regions have low vaccination rates because they include remote and difficult-to-reach areas, are usually affected by typhoons and hit by other calamities, or do not have enough cold storage facilities for the temperature-sensitive vaccines.
He said many of the 48 million vaccine doses that are in storage now require the -20 to -80 degrees freezers and some local government units (LGUs) prefer to receive vaccines on the day it will be administered to minimize wastage.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government has deployed to local government units the vaccines that are expiring this month.
She said even those belonging to the private sector have been deployed to various LGUs, under a loan agreement.
“We got the expiring doses of the private sector so they may already be used and deployed. We will just replace their vaccine when they will use it already,” she said.
Earlier reports said some 400,000 Moderna doses are expiring at the end of this month. — With Victor Reyes, Jocelyn Montemayor and Gerard Naval
