Press Release - Imee wants expansion of 4Ps to include unconditional cash transfer for bed-ridden seniors, PWDs

Senator Imee Marcos urged the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to expand the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to still unserved poor Filipinos, and include unconditional cash transfers for bed-ridden senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Marcos, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development, held a hearing Tuesday, April 23, on several bills proposing amendments to the "4Ps Act (Republic Act 11310)" and the institutionalization of the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS).

"Mayaman na nga ang Pilipinas at umaasenso sa ekonomiya pero marami pa ring Pilipinong naiiwan. Kaya ito nga tinitignan natin yung 4Ps kung paanong palalaganapin kasi mayroong nakakalimutan o napag-iiwanan katulad ng bed-ridden seniors at yung mga severely challenged na PWD.

"Matagal ko nang sinasabi, huwag nang gawing conditional cash transfer--unconditional na yan at yan ay utos ng ating Panginoon, nasa Bibliya yan, pangalagaan na lang yung matatanda at yung may kapansanan na hindi nakakapagtrabaho," Marcos said, in an interview with reporters.

Since the program's inception in 2007, 4Ps indicators have been limited to health and vaccination, and education. The senator stressed it should offer "a more diversified menu to cover more poor beneficiaries."

She explained, "There are other causes of poverty not addressed by 4Ps... Dapat from 2007 it should diversify; hindi na sapat ang 2 measurements: vaccination and education."

Marcos also urged the DSWD, in collaboration with other government agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs), to come up with practical "exit strategies" for 4Ps beneficiaries to allow more impoverished Filipinos to avail of the program, including the Alternative Learning System (ALS), adult education, and entrepreneurship and other employment activities.

For 4Ps to succeed, families must eventually be able to be self-sufficient, she stressed, noting a Commission on Audit (CoA) report stating 90% of active 4Ps beneficiaries in 2022 were still well below the poverty line and would remain there.

The same report noted a total of 4.2 million active 4Ps beneficiaries have