Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or the 4Ps, has a lofty and encompassing goal — to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty among Filipinos by instituting a financial mechanism where the parents “invest” in their children’s future through health, nutrition, and education.
On the surface level, the 4Ps is indeed commendable and through the years, since it was first implemented in 2007 by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as a poverty reduction program, it has helped the poorest of the poor families in times of great need.
Recent news coming from the Commission on Audit (COA), however, puts into question the effectiveness of the 4Ps. According to COA’s Performance Audit Report, despite the ₱537.3 billion infused by the government in the 4Ps, “90 percent of the beneficiaries still live below the poverty threshold.” This finding raises a host of questions: Are the beneficiaries relying too much on the 4Ps? Are there beneficiaries who are not supposed to be on the 4Ps list? Is it time to clean the list? Or did the pandemic drastically impact the program?
A law, Republic Act 11310, or the 4Ps Act, institutionalized this program and in it, beneficiaries can only stay in a span of seven years. Simply put, the DSWD is tasked to delist a beneficiary from the program after reaching the end of their seventh year, whether or not they were able to go beyond the poverty threshold.
This issue of the 4Ps was raised during the Senate deliberation on the budget of the DSWD. No less than Secretary Erwin Tulfo expressed his desire to review the 4Ps, which was supported by various lawmakers such as Senators Imee Marcos, JV Ejercito, and Sherwin Gatchalian.
Senator Marcos revealed that in totality, over ₱900 billion was spent by the government for the 4Ps, “but only 97,000 have graduated from poverty.” “I think it’s time that we revisit the 4Ps seriously because the government has spent so much and it has (only) helped in transient or short-term poverty… but has not established itself as a pathway out of poverty,” Marcos said. “That’s why I’m asking, is the 4Ps effective?”
Secretary Tulfo, in response, concurred with the senator in saying that it is “high time” to review the program. “The purpose is good but we have to review and fix it,” he said. “We leave it to our legislators to make the decision as we are just implementers of the program.”
On the part of Senator Ejercito, he said the 4Ps should not “encourage a culture of mendicancy” as in essence, the 4Ps is not merely a financial dole-out, but a poverty alleviation strategy.
As everyone on the table seemed to be agreeing that it is time to review the 4Ps, it is now the best opportunity to pave the path where this program should go. The DSWD has to start by cleaning the list of beneficiaries and properly identifying the families, especially new ones, who desperately need to be assisted. It would be so much easier — and more practical — if technology can be used to store, digitize, and analyze data, so that the decent goals of the 4Ps will not be bastardized by fraudsters and sham beneficiaries.
