In his inaugural July 2022 State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. underscored the need for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD to review the list of beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the 4Ps.
“Upang matiyak na napupunta sa kwalipikadong mga pamilya ang tulong ng pamahalaan sa pamamagitan ng 4Ps, titiyakin natin na malilinis ang listahan ng benipisyaryo,” the President said.
(To ensure that the government’s assistance goes to qualified families through the 4Ps or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, we will ensure to clean the list of beneficiaries.)
“Higit isang milyong pangalan na ang naka-graduate sa listahan ng 4Ps. At nagagalak akong mabatid na sila’y nakakatayo na sa kanilang sariling mga paa. Kaugnay nito ay inutusan ko ang DSWD na pag-ibayuhin pa ang pag-repaso ng listahan upang maitutok ang pamimigay ng sapat na ayuda sa mga lubos na nangangailangang pamilya,” President Marcos pointed out.
(More than a million beneficiaries have already graduated from the list. And I am glad to know that they can now stand on their own feet. In this regard, I have ordered the DSWD to extend the review of the list to focus on giving adequate aid to the neediest families.)
In August 2022, the DSWD bared the result of the Listahanan 3, or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTSPR), with more than 5.59 million identified as poor households.
“The DSWD has operationalized the directive of President Bongbong Marcos Jr. to clean the list of our 4Ps beneficiaries through the ongoing review and assessment of household-beneficiaries. This effort will ensure that only the deserving poorest of the poor Filipinos will receive grants from the government,” DSWD Secretary Gatchalian said.
Based on the latest result of the Listahanan 3 assessment, about 1.3 million households are subject to validation and possible exit from the 4Ps.
Of these figures, 196,539 households were already delisted for various reasons, including natural attrition, waiving of membership, and graduation from the program.
Recently, Secretary Gatchalian also ordered the reassessment of the remaining beneficiaries of the 4Ps who were tagged as “non-poor.”
The DSWD will use the Social Welfare and Development Indicators (SWDI) tool to assess and monitor the level of living conditions of the 4Ps households, according to DSWD spokesperson Asst. Secretary Romel Lopez.
“The SWDI is being used by the Department as a case management tool to determine the progress of the households, by measuring their level of well-being in terms of economic sufficiency and social adequacy,” Asst. Secretary Lopez said.
Based on the set of indicators in terms of economic sufficiency and social adequacy, households are categorized under three levels: Level 1-survival; Level 2-subsistence; and Level 3-self-sufficient. The result of the tool aids the program in identifying the interventions needed by the family in order to achieve an improved level of well-being toward self-reliance.
Listahanan is an information management system that establishes a database of poor households that will serve as a basis for identifying potential beneficiaries for different social protection programs and services nationwide. Its main objective is to formulate a unified criterion for the identification of the ‘poor’ households through scientific means.
“With the profound commitment of Secretary Gatchalian in this endeavor, the Department continues to improvise its program policies and systems to ensure that only deserving beneficiaries will be accorded conditional cash transfers with the goal to improve their overall health, nutrition, and education,” the DSWD spokesperson said. #
