Senate PR/via Pauline Requesto – PTV News
Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon on Thursday lauded the signing into law of Republic Act 11310 or the Institutionalization of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), citing its effectiveness in combating poverty in the country.
“The institutionalization of 4Ps is one of my campaign promises when I ran and topped the senatorial race in 2016, because I believe that such a very high-impact poverty alleviation program needs to be sustained,” said Drilon, one of the authors of the law.
“The signing into law of Republic Act 11310 is a big push in the government’s objective of reducing poverty incidence to 14 percent by 2022,” he said.
“The institutionalization of 4Ps would allay fears about the program being abolished or scaled down,” Drilon added.
The conditional cash transfer program or 4Ps is patterned after the conditional cash transfer scheme implemented in other developing countries, which provides cash grants to beneficiaries provided that they comply with the set of conditions required by the program.
It was first implemented in pilot areas during the Arroyo administration with less than a million beneficiaries. The Aquino administration continued and expanded the program reaching more than four million beneficiaries by the end of Aquino’s term.
Drilon said that 4Ps helped in reducing poverty incidence in the country, citing the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which showed that poverty incidence in the country dropped to 21 percent in the first semester of 2018.
The 4Ps, according to Drilon, has become a platform to close the poor’s income gap, enabling them to move closer to the minimum income level.
In the Philippines, a family of 5 would need to earn P10,481 to meet their needs. The 4Ps would provide around P1,400 per month to millions of poorest families, augmenting their meager income, according to Drilon.
The senator also pointed to the program’s effectiveness in keeping poor children in school and preventing them from dropping out. One of the conditions of the program to receive the grant is for parents to send their children to school.
