A lawmaker on Monday, August 8, recommended the increase in cash aid for beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) from P2,000 to P3,000 due to inflation and the effects of the ongoing pandemic.
In his privilege speech during plenary session, Northern Samar Representative Paul Daza also called for the monthly release of the payouts instead of every two months.
“Prices had been going up. It’s unfortunate that all countries are affected by the pandemic and then, recently, the war in Ukraine. More than ever, our poor needs better social safety nets,” Daza said.
He also stressed that there should be due diligence in the delisting of 1.3 million families from the 4Ps, seeing the likely need to even add more in the list.
“Any delisting must go through a process of reassessment and social case management as set forth in the law,” he said. “I agree that it’s about time we do a thorough cleansing of the list. However, beneficiaries in 4Ps should not be reduced but instead increased due to an uptick in poverty incidence by 2.6 percent nationwide as caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
According to latest government estimates, poverty incidence in the Philippines increased to 23.7 percent in the first half of 2021 from 21.1 percent in the same period in 2018. This means about 3.9 million more Filipinos are living in poverty.
He said taking into account this information, the country may be looking at an estimated 780,000 to a million families as new beneficiaries based on a four to five-member household. This is close to the number of families being targeted for de-listing.PNA
