Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18) — The House committee on poverty alleviation on Friday called on the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to suspend its removal of up to 1.3 million poor families from the conditional cash transfer program.
In a statement, committee chairman 1-Pacman Rep. Mikee Romero said the panel asked the agency to “carefully assess” the condition of families to be delisted and those who would replace them.
While the committee supports the government’s effort to have more poor families benefit from the 4Ps, Romero said it wants to be sure that “exiting families have really improved their financial status.”
He questioned the DSWD’s policy that 4Ps households earning over ₱12,000 a month would no longer be entitled to financial aid, noting that ₱400 a day is not enough to feed a family.
Romero further said the committee’s proposed delisting moratorium would not impact the 4Ps as it has sufficient funds.
“Its funding in the annual national budget is good for 4.4 million families. Today, 3.9 million families are considered ‘active,’ of which 3.2 million are receiving financial assistance. Some 700,000 households are ‘under review’,” the lawmaker said.
Last year, the agency announced that at least 1.3 million 4Ps beneficiaries were no longer qualified for aid as they were found without eligible household members, not complying with program conditions, or have achieved the self-sufficient stage.
The poverty alleviation program, which provides cash grants to poor households with children not older than 18 years old, has a ₱112.8-billion funding in the proposed ₱5.768-trillion 2024 national budget, ₱10.23 billion higher than the current outlay.
