BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-CAR) underscored that there is still no replacement for the beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4ps) who were able to graduate from the program or who were delisted because of alleged violations of the rules and regulations of the same.
DSWD-CAR regional director Janet P. Armas claimed that from the over 65,000 beneficiaries of the program based on the results of previous surveys as of 2012, there are some 61,312 households regionwide that are registered under the program.
“There is no replacement policy that is in place as of to date that is why those who waived their benefits or those who were delisted from the program because of violations were not yet actually replaced,” Armas stressed.
The DSWD-CAR official explained that if there will be replacements that will be done, the households will still come from the list of proposed beneficiaries as embodied on the 2012 survey results contrary to the claim of congressional candidates that a mere certification from barangay officials will allow their enlistment to the program.
She clarified that the program is now on its tenth year that is why it is not true that if not for the intervention of incumbent lawmakers, funds for the program will not be released considering that the program is an institutionalized program of the government that have been passed on to different administrations over the past ten years.
According to her, there are no instructions yet from their central office for the replacement of those that already graduated from the program, those who waived their benefits because they were able to acquire the needed skills for them to earn a living for their families or those who were delisted from the program because of violations of existing rules and regulations that is why there were no additions that were done to the existing list of beneficiaries.
Armas underscored that those who are qualified to be enrolled in the program are those with children aged 0-18 at the time of the latest listing of beneficiaries that was done nationwide and that there were no other surveys that were done to update the said list, thus, if there will be additional beneficiaries that will be included in the coming years, the same will come from the survey results as of 2012.
She added that there will be an upcoming household survey by 202 to update the 2012 list but the same will still depend on the availability of the budget that will be provided for the said purpose that is why those who are supposed to be included in the list will have to wait for the results of the upcoming survey.
The social welfare office urged people in the rural areas to be honest in responding to the enumerators during the conduct of surveys so that the government will be able to get the accurate data on the close to real number of supposed beneficiaries of the government’s anti-poverty program.
Aside from the provision of financial assistance to the beneficiaries of the program, the DSWD also provides them with livelihood trainings to allow them to become resilient and establish their own sources of livelihood that will help them move out from the shackles of poverty in the future. By HENT