Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES

University Town, Northern Samar, Philippines
Web: http://uep.edu.ph;
Email: [email protected]

A PROGRAM ANALYSIS ON THE PANTAWID

PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM (4Ps)

Prepared by:

YMATA, JULIUS F.
BA Political Science – 4A

Submitted to:

MARK THEO P. ZETA

Course Instructor
 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)

History of the program

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is the national poverty reduction
strategy and a human capital investment program that provides conditional cash transfer to
poor households for a maximum period of seven (7) years, to improve the health, nutrition,
and education aspects of their lives. The National Advisory Council (NAC) may recommend
a longer period under exceptional circumstances.1

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a poverty reduction strategy patterned

after the successful Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program in Brazil, Latin America, and
Africa. It gives cash subsidies to the poorest households particularly with children 0-14 years
old to help them improve their health, nutrition, and education.

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) is a provision of cash grants to eligible poor

families for as long as they meet certain agreed conditions and it aims primarily to alleviate
poverty in the short-run while raising the human capital of poor children and, therefore, their
future income.

Introduced under the Aquino administration, the 4Ps was an expansion of the Arroyo
administration’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program first implemented in 2008. Under
the Arroyo CCT program, indigent families were given a cash grant of P500 per month for
health and nutrition purposes and an additional P300 for education expenses. The Aquino 4Ps
expanded this program while adding specific conditions. The 4Ps required beneficiaries to
avail of prenatal and postnatal care for pregnant women, to attend family development
sessions and seminars, to have infant children vaccinated, and to enroll children 3 to 18 in
school, maintaining an attendance of at least 85% of class days every month. CCTs under the
Arroyo administration were introduced in 2008 as a response to a food crisis. Under the
Aquino administration, it was expanded to meet Sustainable Development Goals on
reproductive health, primary education, and child nutrition. In each iteration, CCTs have very
specific goals that can help alleviate poverty.2

1
Republic Act No. 11310. lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2019/ra_11310_2019.html.
 In 2007, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program started in the Philippines but in
August 2008 Set 1 of Pantawid beneficiaries were chosen in four (4) municipalities of Nueva
Ecija with 7,545 registered households.

By the year 2010, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program covered the seven (7)
provinces of the region with 37 municipalities and 20,964 additional households to be
included in set 3 beneficiaries.

Set 4 beneficiaries commenced in 2011 in Masantol, Pampanga with the expansion of

the two Highly Urbanized Cities (HUCs) and two municipalities with 50% and above poverty
incidence and there were 3,212 potential households. In the later months of 2011, 5575
households were front-loaded from the city of Muñoz and San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

2012 was the year when Set 5 beneficiaries started with 50, 376 households covering
all the cities and indigenous people municipalities and municipalities with a poverty
incidence of 30.6%.

In January 2013, set 6 started with 131,260 target beneficiaries covering all the
municipalities not covered in the previous sets and with the expansion of set 3 areas.

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program has covered 100% of the 7 provinces, 14 cities,
116 municipalities, and 99.39% out of 3,102 target barangays in the region. The program has
likewise identified 17,227 potential households for Set 7. Out of the 309,855 potential
household beneficiaries, 258, 486 were registered.

Pantawid Pamilya potential households for Sets 1-6 and 7 (batches 1 & 2) in the
region were 309,855. As of September 13, 2013, the program has 258,486 registered
households based on the clean list record coming from the database.

The status of payment of the Beneficiaries and the schedule of pay-outs are lodged in
the Finance. It plays a vital role in handling the cash grants of the beneficiaries taking into
consideration the essence of transparency and accountability. The budget allocation was

2
[OPINION] Missing the Mark on 4Ps. www.pids.gov.ph/details/news/in-the-news/10-17-
philstar.
based on the Compliance Verification turn-out per period in the status of Payments for the 1 st,
2nd, and 3rd periods per Province.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program has two goals, first is social assistance
which is to provide cash assistance to the poor to alleviate their needs (short term) and lastly,
it aims to break the intergenerational poverty cycle through investment in human capital, i.e.
health, nutrition and education (long-term).3

This Act was passed by the Senate of the Philippines as Senate Bill No. 2117 on
February 4, 2019, and adopted by the House of Representatives as an amendment to House
Bill No. 7773 on February 7, 2019. On April 17, 2019, it was institutionalized by the
Republic Act No. 11310 also known as the "Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)
Act" and was approved by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who was the President of the
Philippines at that time.

4Ps Objectives

The 4Ps is a poverty reduction strategy that aims to improve the health, nutrition, and
education of poor families. The program aims to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
The following are the objectives of the 4Ps:

 To improve preventive health care among pregnant women and young children
 To increase the enrollment in and attendance rate of children in school
 To reduce the incidence of child labor
 To raise the average consumption rate in food expenditure of poor households
 To encourage parents to invest in their children’s (and their own) human
capital through investments in their health and nutrition, education, and participation
in community activities

Conditions for Entitlement

3
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) | DSWD Field Office III Official
Website. fo3.dswd.gov.ph/pantawid-pamilyang-pilipino-program-4ps.
 As applicable, all qualified household beneficiaries shall comply with all the
following conditions as a requirement for continued program eligibility:

a. Pregnant women must avail of pre-natal services, give birth in a health facility attended by
a skilled health professional, and receive post-partum care and post-partum visits, and
essential newborn care and post-natal follow-up visits for her newborn infant;

b. Children zero (0) to five (5) years old must receive regular preventive health and nutrition
services including check-ups and vaccination, growth and development monitoring, and
promotion from the City/ Municipal Health Center, Rural Health Units, or Barangay Health
Station to avail applicable health services, based on existing DOH guidelines;

c. Children one (1) to fourteen (14) years old must avail of deworming pills/ medicines at
least twice a year;

d. Children three (3) to four (4) years old must attend daycare service or preschool classes
and at least maintain class attendance at a rate of eighty-five percent (85%) of the time per
month;

e. Children 5 to eighteen (18) years old must attend elementary or secondary classes at
maintain class attendance at a rate of at least 85% of the time per month, and

f. At least 1 responsible person or any appropriate member of the household must attend
Family Development Sessions (FDS) conducted by the DSWD, at least once a month. This
shall include all sessions and programs conducted by DSWD and its partners.

Health & Nutrition

 Pregnant women avail pre-and post-natal care and Childbirth supervised by a health
professional
 Children 0 to 5 years old avail complete immunization, weight monitoring, nutrition
counseling & preventive health services
 Children 6 to 14 avail of de-worming pills twice a year

Education

 Children 3 to 5 years old enrolled in Day Care with 85% class attendance/month
  Children 6 to 14 enrolled in elementary and high school with 85% class
attendance/month

Parenting Education

 Attend Family Development Sessions once a month

4Ps’ three (3) main systems

Beneficiary Update System – Updating beneficiary information in the system is one

of the significant components of the program. Failure to update the beneficiary profile would
possibly result in exclusion in the Compliance Verification Form and eventually a reason for
a decrease of a cash grant or worse not receiving a cash grant for the specified period.

Compliance Verification System – CVU takes charge of the distribution and retrieval
of CV Forms for Schools, Health Centers, and Barangays for the compliance Period of May
to June 2013. The Compliance Verification System develops a monitoring tool for the
number of beneficiaries complying with the Conditionalities of the Pantawid Pamilyang
Pilipino Program.

Grievance Redress System – The goal of the Redress System is to Pantawid

Pamilyang Pilipino address complaints/grievances from different stakeholders about the
implementation of the Program. Empower and develop a comprehensive process for
assessing and resolving grievances on its corresponding level: Municipality, Provincial
Operating Office (POO), Regional Project Monitoring Office (RPMO), and National
Monitoring Office (NPMO). Thus, action taken depends on the level of complaints and
resolved by the situation that may arise.4

Bureaucracy in charge of the program

In the implementation of the Act and this IRR under section 35, the DSWD shall
serve as the central planning, coordinating, implementing, and monitoring body of the

4
Ibid
Program. It shall establish an arrangement of line of authority, communications, and the roles
and responsibilities of the different divisions, including regional provincial, and city/
municipal structures, in the implementation of the Program. As the Program's monitoring
body, the DSWD shall ensure cultural appropriateness and gender responsiveness of its
program management cycle including planning, implementation, and evaluation. Appropriate
data and statistics on gender and vulnerable sectors, among others, shall be regularly
collected, generated, and analyzed to inform assessment processes.

The DSWD shall ensure appropriate program structure and sufficient staffing
personnel for the program's effective implementation. This shall be reviewed as a part of the
Program performance to ensure that the structure and staffing complement remain relevant to
achieve the program objectives.5

Program Implementation

In the implementation of the Act and this IRR under section 36, the DSWD shall
perform the following functions:

a. Select and use an appropriate, effective, and cost-efficient method to identify and select
qualified household beneficiaries;

b. Identify and select the target household beneficiaries based on a uniform, objective, and
transparent selection process as indicated in Section 5 of the Act;

“To be eligible for the cash grants, households automatically included in the
standardized targeting system under Section 8 must meet the following
criteria:

a. Classified as poor and near-poor based on the adopted standardized

targeting system and the poverty threshold issued by the PSA at the time of
selection;

b. Have members who are aged zero (0) to eighteen (18) years old or have
members who are pregnant at the time of registration; and

5
Republic Act No. 11310. lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2019/ra_11310_2019.html.
 c. Willing to comply with the conditions set in the oath of commitment and
mutually- agreed household intervention plan (HIP).”

c. Coordinate with different national and local government agencies, including organizations
from the private sector to ensure full implementation of statutory commitments herein;

d. Set up participatory monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems and methodologies on

compliance of conditions, implementation of operations, and output and impact assessments.
It shall also coordinate with the NAC and with the Independent Monitoring Committee
(IMC) at the national and local levels, to verify compliance every month, using the M&E
systems designed for the purpose:

e. Recommend the NAC measures and policies for the responsive delivery of the
commitments under the Act:

f. Identify the coverage of the 4Ps based on the Standardized Targeting System;

g. Provide seminar workshops and training programs to educate qualified household-

beneficiaries about the conditions and other actions pertinent to the Act;

h. Organize a session on entrepreneurship and disaster preparedness and risk reduction or

arrange a community development activity in the qualified household-beneficiaries'
respective cities/ municipalities or barangays whichever are available annually;

i. Submit an annual report to Congress on all aspects of its operations, financial status, and
other relevant data;

j. Formulate IRR and guidelines for the enforcement of the Act; and

k. Perform such other functions as may be necessary or incidental to the proper

implementation of the provisions of the Act.6

Program Administration

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is getting flak for its apparent
inability to solve widespread poverty, which is quite weird because it was never meant to do
so.

6
Ibid
 The Commission on Audit (COA) recently recommended a comprehensive review of
the efficiency of this government program. This is under its findings that about 3.82 million
or 90% of the 4.26 million household beneficiaries are still below the poverty level, despite
being covered by the program for, at most, 13 years.

In line with this, Sen. Imee Marcos floated the idea of coming up with an exit strategy
to discontinue the 4Ps, noting that only 900,000 students under the program had graduated
since its introduction 15 years ago. This was supported by Sen. Win Gatchalian, who stressed
that beneficiary families seem to remain poor despite their children’s higher participation in
school.

But such recommendations may be off the mark. Considering that the 4Ps were
introduced to solve very specific problems, measuring its success based on such vague
parameters within a very narrow period might not be fair, especially for indigent families
relying on the program to survive the rising costs of food, fuel, and other necessities.

Minding the target

Since there are established outcomes the program sets out to achieve, measuring its
efficacy based on the capability of families to rise above the poverty level may be misguided.
It disregards that in terms of its established goals, the program has been quite effective.

According to a study released by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies last
February 2021, the 4Ps showed “desirable impacts on most of the target education and health
outcomes of children and pregnant women,” namely “positive impacts on household welfare
such as income and food security; large positive impacts on community participation; and
awareness of basic means to mitigate vulnerabilities such as disaster preparedness among
adults.” The 4Ps also showed a strong impact on the “grit” or determination of children to
pursue their studies.

Experts: 4Ps need to be improved, not gutted

What is curious is that the current calls for a “strategic exit” from the 4Ps are contrary
to the recommendations of policy experts, considering that the implementation of the 4Ps is
not at par with best practices by countries with similar CCT programs.
 Last November 2021, PIDS reported in its “Evaluating the Pantawid Pamilyang
Pilipino Program’s Payment System” that the amounts of the cash transfers “have remained
at their nominal levels from 2008 to 2016, even though their real value has already decreased
due to inflation,” with significant increases only happening in 2017 and 2020. Compared to
other CCT programs from other countries, “the generosity of the [4Ps] program is actually
[at] the bottom 20%.”

The recommendation by the government think tank is actually to improve the

responsiveness of the 4Ps to price fluctuations by “establishing a principle for adjusting the
grant amount” and by “the importance of reliability and predictability of payment schedules.”
The February 2021 study also recommended strengthening project monitoring and
enforcement of health-related conditions.

Death to 4Ps? Not today

CCTs under the Arroyo administration were introduced in 2008 as a response to a

food crisis. Under the Aquino administration, it was expanded to meet Sustainable
Development Goals on reproductive health, primary education, and child nutrition. In each
iteration, CCTs have very specific goals that can help alleviate poverty. But it is misguided to
measure it based on whether it has done the latter, especially if it is meeting the former.

How the senators and other policymakers are framing the issue reveals an important
facet regarding the 4Ps: that even among legislators and implementers, there is a disconnect
between the goal and the program. They went along with CCTs convinced that it would solve
poverty, only to find that it didn’t. And now, they may push for its removal, ignoring the
benefits that it did achieve.

Gutting social welfare programs will not help poverty alleviation, especially when the
real value of wages is falling while the cost of living keeps rising – especially under the
shadow of the pandemic, where dropout rates among the student population have increased
significantly. There may come a day when the impoverished will no longer need social safety
nets like the 4Ps. But it is not today.

Policymakers are right that there is a need to end poverty. Yet it will not be helped by
removing social welfare programs. Especially ones that have been proven to work.7
7
www.pids.gov.ph/details/news/in-the-news/10-17-philstar.
National government program administration and response

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. issued several directives to address the impact of
inflation on the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) during a
sectoral meeting at the State Dining Room in Malacañan Palace.

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian

led the presentation, highlighting the challenges faced by the 4Ps program amid rising
inflation. He pointed out that inflation has eroded the value of the 4P’s grants, reducing the
purchasing power of the grants by 18% from 2019 to 2023. Without intervention, he
projected that by 2028, 4Ps beneficiaries might only be able to purchase approximately
67.6% of what they used to in 2019.

One of the critical issues included the country’s performance in reducing the stunted
growth of children under 5 years of age. The Philippines’ progress has stalled, ranking as the
second worst in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), following Indonesia.

To address this issue, the DSWD proposed providing an additional PhP400 or PhP13
per day as an incentive for pregnant women or children aged 0 to 2 years for 12 consecutive
months, conditional upon access to prenatal services, delivery attended by a skilled worker,
postpartum care or visits, postnatal visits for newborns, and check-ups and vaccinations until
2 years old.

The proposal also recommended increasing cash grants for the following 4Ps
beneficiaries, subject to specific conditions: from PhP300 to PhP400 for daycare and
elementary, from PhP500 to PhP700 for junior high school, from PhP700 to PhP900 for
senior high school, all provided for 10 consecutive months. Additionally, each household
would receive an increase from PhP750 to PhP1,000 for 12 consecutive months.

Secretary Gatchalian assured them that if the inflation rate continues to rise at a 4%
rate, the proposed measures would future-proof the grants until 2028. These measures would
also ensure that 4Ps beneficiaries with pregnant mothers and children under 0-2 years old
would receive additional resources to meet their needs.
 As per the latest data, a total of 730,509 beneficiaries of the 4Ps have graduated from
the Program. The DSWD also requested an updated list of 4Ps beneficiaries from the
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the National Economic and Development Authority
(NEDA), since the most recent data dates back to 2019.8

In the study of PIDS Senior Research Fellow Michael R.M. Abrigo sponsored by the
Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) emphasized that while the program has
successfully incentivized families to engage with essential services, the quality of these
services may suffer due to accessibility issues and resource constraints. The 4Ps have had
positive impacts, such as increased prenatal visits, child health service utilization, and
educational investment. However, ensuring access to high-quality services remains a major
challenge, particularly for geographically disadvantaged beneficiaries.

“Based on their observations, schools with a higher proportion of 4Ps beneficiaries

tend to have higher student-teacher ratios and a lower likelihood of having qualified master
teachers,” Abrigo said, highlighting a troubling trend of diminishing educational quality. He
added that residing farther from school correlates with reduced school attendance rates, with
only 60 to 70 percent of children in their sample consistently attending school.

On health services, distance, and resources negatively impact child immunization

rates. “Only 40 to 50 percent of children in the sample received all basic immunizations, with
less than 5 percent receiving all age-appropriate vaccines,” Abrigo said. These challenges are
further exacerbated by resource constraints among health facilities, hindering their ability to
adequately serve 4Ps beneficiaries.

There is a need to restructure the program’s monitoring and listing protocol to

maximize the benefits for targeted beneficiaries and minimize potential negative impacts on
other household members, Abrigo concluded. It is important to explore program
modifications that ensure the delivery of benefits without causing unintended harm to
families.9

8
Ibid
9
Healthcare, Education Gaps Threaten 4Ps Impact; Gov’t Urged to Boost Supply-
side Investments. www.pids.gov.ph/details/news/press-releases/investing-in-services-and-
program-restructuring-key-to-maximizing-4ps-impact-pids-study.
Bane or boon

Since its undertaking, the program has had significant successes. The 4Ps have been
noted to help reduce food poverty among beneficiaries, increase gross enrollment rates for
children ranging from 12 to 17 years old, and expand access to healthcare services for
children.

However, the 4Ps also have their pitfalls. In periodic impact evaluations, the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in partnership with the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), observed gaps in the monitoring and compliance efforts of the
program. For instance, there existed a trend among families with multiple children to not
maximize the three-child cap on educational grants and monitoring, which underscores the
lack of proper monitoring on the part of the DSWD.

Another study conducted in 2019 by the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health also
discovered that children from beneficiary families and non-beneficiary households were
equally prone to stunting and poor nutritional status, indicating that the 4Ps may make no
impact on families’ wealth and food security.

Moreover, Economics Associate Professor Geoffrey Ducanes, PhD highlighted that

recent modernization efforts pose the problem of increasing costs of living beyond what the
cash transfers can afford. For instance, the jeepney modernization program may entail a loss
of livelihood for not only operators but also commuters, due to Filipinos’ widespread reliance
on jeepneys. In the face of these economic developments, programs like the 4Ps are
insufficient to truly alleviate poverty.

Down the road

By themselves, cash grants and other financial aid programs cannot resolve the crisis
brought upon by poverty. Ducanes stressed that alongside providing more livelihood
opportunities, one step toward improving the 4Ps would be to reinforce its targeting.

“Who should be prioritized among the poor? Perhaps households with the lowest
human capital levels. Perhaps for these households, the amount of financial support can be
increased. These kinds of refinements can improve [the] 4Ps,” Ducanes said.

Dela Cruz further added that improving the quality of social services is equally crucial
for poor families. “There is a need to improve social services, particularly in terms of health,
which the 4Ps impact assessment says is problematic in terms of supply. Ill health can
quickly drive families [back] into poverty,” he asserted.

According to Dela Cruz, the government may opt to consolidate and improve the
coordination between 4Ps and healthcare interventions to provide appropriate financial
support.

Essentially, the 4Ps have greatly improved the living conditions of many Filipino
families, specifically through poverty reduction and extensive socioeconomic change in the
country. However, it cannot eradicate poverty on its own, as doing so requires many policy
and institutional refinements needed to achieve inclusive and holistic development. 10

CONCLUSION

- Summary, conclusion, and interpretation (Based on secondary sources to be backed

up by the interview or PS)

- Recommendations (will be based on findings and secondary sources)

10
Bermas, Ronnel, and Alekxie Castaños. “The Current Status of 4Ps in the Philippines.” The
GUIDON, 19 Mar. 2024, theguidon.com/2024/03/the-current-status-of-4ps-in-the-philippines.