THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7 has disbursed P4.2 billion for the implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
Now on its tenth year of implementation, the 4Ps continues to invest in the health and education of poor households to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty in the country.
As of December 2018, the program is being implemented in the 132 Local Government Units (LGUs) in four provinces in Central Visayas.
A total of 277,900 are active household-beneficiaries. Of the 277,900 active household-beneficiaries, 250,617 are covered by the regular Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, while 27,283 are covered by the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT).
The MCCT includes beneficiaries who are not covered by the regular CCT. These are homeless street families, victims of natural and man-made disasters who are rendered homeless and with no means of livelihood, and indigenous people living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.
Under 4Ps, cash grants are provided to compliant household-beneficiaries with a health grant worth P500 and educational grants worth P300 to P500 to the children studying in elementary and high school.
A rice subsidy in the form of cash amounting to P600 is also given to the household-beneficiary.
Household-beneficiaries need to comply with the following conditions in order to receive the full amount of the cash grants: school attendance of at least 85 percent per month for children enrolled in elementary or high school; children aged five and below would need to undergo preventive check-up as mandated by the Department of Health (DOH), and children enrolled in elementary school must receive deworming pills twice within the school year.
Pregnant women must also receive pre- and post-natal care based on DOH protocol.
Lastly, parents or guardians are required to attend the monthly Family Development Session (FDS).
Compliance rate of Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries is 96.51 percent in education, 98.91 percent in health and 95.43 percent in FDS. The regional average compliance rate is 96.95 percent, higher than that of national’s 95.78 percent.
The cash grants are disbursed to beneficiaries through the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). They can claim their money through a cash card or over-the-counter (OTC).
In far-flung areas, conduit banks that are mostly rural and cooperative banks accredited by LBP are tapped in OTC payouts. (S)