AN official from the Department of Social Welfare and Development - Davao Region (DSWD-Davao) said 23,009 household beneficiaries were delisted from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) primarily because of their "improving" economic situation.
The agency's initial round of mass validation from July 2022 to January 2023 recorded around 23,000 households delisted out of 262,000 households in the DSWD's 2019 data.
According to Margie Cabido, 4Ps Division Chief, the 23,009 families are now considered non-poor based on their 4Ps qualifications and are not "inclusion errors." These families received assistance from various government agencies, which contributed to their improved economic situation.
Cabido added that these households were classified as poor before joining the program, but during the validation process or surveys, they were identified as non-poor due to the interventions provided to them.
“Nakita nato na naa gyu’y dako na contribution ang mga nagkalain-lain na mga intervention (We have observed that there is a significant contribution from the various interventions) provided by the DSWD and the other national government agencies,” Cabido said during Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Davao.
Cabido explained that a family is considered "poor" if it earns an income of less than P11,000 in a family of five, along with other economic indicators such as employment, housing type, water source, electricity source, and appliances used based on their household assessment form.
“Gina-compute pod na siya, naa tay ginatawag na proxy means test to determine, a technology used by our agency to determine kung poor ba or non-poor ba siya (We assess our beneficiaries using a technology called proxy means test, which our agency utilizes to determine whether a household is classified as poor or non-poor.),” Cabido added.
Cabido said they aim to reach 284,166 4Ps beneficiaries from Davao Region by the end of this year. Their second round of validating target 4Ps beneficiaries began in early March and will continue until the end of the year. ICE