THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7 has urged the public to help its personnel validate over 90,000 potential new beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) this year.
Starting this February, the DSWD will be posting the masterlist of potential beneficiaries of the government’s poverty alleviating programs, and replace old beneficiaries who have graduated and are now self-sufficient, including those 4Ps households whose children have finished senior high school and have no eligible children being monitored.
The masterlists will be posted in conspicuous areas in the barangay, city and municipal halls.
The DSWD 7 has recorded 288,841 4Ps beneficiaries in Central Visayas.
Cebu Province topped the registration of potential beneficiaries with 40,817 followed by Negros Oriental with 31,625; Bohol with 16,971; and Siquijor with 829.
Deserving
DSWD 7 Director Shalaine Maria Lucero said the validation process will ensure that those in the masterlist are deserving beneficiaries of the program.
“We encourage the public to help us validate the masterlist to ensure that only eligible and deserving households become part of the program,” Lucero said in an advisory.
The 4Ps is a poverty reduction program of the government that provides financial assistance to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education of children aged 0 to 14.
Eligible families are those whose economic condition is equal to or below the provincial poverty threshold; those that have children 0 to 18 years old and/or have a pregnant woman at the time of assessment; and households that agree to meet conditions specified in the program.
The DSWD will put up a grievance help desk during the 4Ps registration that will address complaints of potential beneficiaries who will be part of the validation process. The validation will be handled by DSWD personnel during a community assembly or house-to-house visit.
Those who will register are required to submit their marriage certificate, birth certificate, school enrollment certificate, health enrollment certificate and valid identification cards.
In January 2023, the DSWD 7 strengthened its ties with the local government units (LGUs), which play a crucial role in the implementation of the 4Ps.
The agency met with focal persons for the 4Ps program in the LGUs visited and discussed the program’s updates and goals this year.
In the nationwide implementation of the 4Ps, the DSWD has helped over four million poor households and more will benefit from the program as the agency continues to replace those who have completed the program.
DSWD will base its masterlist on the potential beneficiaries of the third round of the “Listahanan,” a household assessment in 2019, where selected beneficiaries were given cash grants from the government upon compliance with the program’s conditions.
These include compliance with the school attendance per month for their children, preventive check-up, deworming, pre-natal check for pregnant women and attendance at the monthly Family Development Sessions.