The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office VII targeted to register a total of 90,242 new beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

The new 4Ps beneficiaries are replacements for those beneficiaries who graduated or exited from the program who were already at the self-sufficient level, 4Ps households with children who have finished their senior high school studies, and have no monitored eligible children.

Cebu province has the highest number of new beneficiaries with 40,817, followed by Negros Oriental with 31,625, Bohol with 16,971, and Siquijor with 829.

Currently, there are 288,841 4Ps households in the Central Visayas region.

The posting of the master list of potential 4Ps beneficiaries will commence this February, and it will be posted in conspicuous spaces like barangay, city, and municipal halls.

“We encourage the public to help us validate the master list to ensure that only eligible and deserving households become part of the program. After we post the master list in each area, the validation process will follow, which will be done through a community assembly or a house-to-house visit by our 4Ps staff,” said DSWD-7 Regional Director Shalaine Marie Lucero.

The potential 4Ps households are required to submit the marriage certificate, birth certificate, school enrollment certificate, health enrollment certificate, valid identification card (ID), or other alternate documents as part of the supporting documents during the registration.

The assigned 4Ps City and Municipal Links (C/MLs) will announce the registration schedule and the venue per barangay.

During the DSWD-7 staff orientation on the process of the registration of new 4Ps beneficiaries on January 31, 2023, held at the DSWD Field Office VII, Director Lucero emphasized the importance of teamwork in order to accomplish the task successfully.

“We will be registering a large number of beneficiaries in 4Ps, and this entails good planning and strategy to deliver the task ahead. We also need to have proper coordination with the local government units (LGUs) to ensure an orderly and organized registration of 4Ps households,” underscored Lucero.

She also added that the agency will install a grievance help desk during the 4Ps registration to receive complaints from the potential beneficiaries and the public.

The DSWD implemented the program nationwide, covering 4.4 million households. It continues to reach more poor households by replacing those who exited the program. The 4Ps National Advisory Council (NAC) passed Resolution No. 43, institutionalizing the replacement policy of 4Ps households by those not yet covered by the program.

The master list of potential 4Ps beneficiaries comes from the Listahanan third round of household assessment, which was conducted in 2019.

Aside from being identified as poor from Listahanan, a 4Ps household must have children aged 0–18 or a pregnant member at the time of the household assessment and must be willing and able to comply with the conditions of the program as part of their co-responsibilities.

The households are given cash grants when they comply with the program’s conditions. These include school attendance of at least 85% per month for children enrolled in preschool, elementary, or high school; children aged 5 and below to undergo preventive check-ups as mandated by the Department of Health (DOH); children enrolled in elementary to receive deworming pills twice within the school year; pregnant women must receive prenatal and postnatal care, based on DOH protocol; and parent(s) or guardians to attend monthly Family Development Sessions (FDS).

The 4Ps is the government’s major poverty alleviation program that invests in the health, nutrition, and education of poor, eligible households. These, along with the psychosocial and educational components provided through the Family Development Session (FDS), lead the beneficiaries to have improved and sustained well-being. Implemented through DSWD, it was institutionalized in 2019 by virtue of Republic Act 11310, or the 4Ps Act. ###

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