4Ps families to still get cash for rice subsidy – DWSD

HOUSEHOLD beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) would continue to get their rice subsidy in the form of a P600 monthly cash assistance until program guidelines are changed or amended, Social Welfare Assistant Secretary and concurrent spokesman Romel Lopez said yesterday.

Lopez made the pronouncement in separate radio and television interviews following the call of the National Food Authority (NFA) for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to start giving away NFA rice instead of cash aid to 4Ps beneficiaries.

Lopez, however, said the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 11310, or the law that institutionalized the 4Ps program, calls for the grant of a cash subsidy for the rice benefits of the program’s recipients.

Besides, he said, the cash subsidy is more practical and efficient as it allows beneficiaries to decide when and where to buy their rice requirements.

However, Lopez said the DSWD is ready to distribute sacks of rice to 4Ps households if the IRR is amended by the program’s National Advisory Council (NAC), which is composed of members from the DSWD, the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), among others.

“Once ito po ay susugan ng NAC, tayo po, sa DSWD will be bound to follow and implement kung ito ang mapagkakasunduan (Once an amendment is approved by the NAC, we at the DSWD will be bound to follow and implement whatever is agreed upon),” Lopez said.