By Brian Jules Campued
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. directed the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other concerned agencies on Tuesday to ensure the government’s social protection programs are relevant and responsive to the needs of the times, Secretary Rex Gatchalian in a Malacañang briefing said.
Gatchalian also added that the President made the directive during a sectoral meeting wherein he instructed the DSWD along with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to study how the value of government assistance, particularly the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), does not diminish amid inflation.
“Alam naman natin na ginagawa ng economic team lahat para mapababa ang inflation, pero habang ginagawa ‘yun, kailangan kaakibat yung pagprotekta sa peso value ng mga grants na ibinibigay natin, katulad sa 4Ps at sa iba pang mga programa na nakatuon sa pagbibigay ng social protection sa pinakamahihirap nating kababayan,” he said.
The DSWD was also tasked to work with PSA and NEDA to develop an index-based system to adjust the amounts of cash grants based on the cost of living or prices of essential goods.
However, the 4Ps provides a fixed amount of cash grants to the beneficiaries so a new law has to be passed if the government wants to increase the amount of cash aid.
“But give us time to compute first. Ayaw namin na magkamali yung index na gagamitin kasi there are plenty of indexes from what we heard from our economic team,” Gatchalian clarified.
Meanwhile, the DSWD chief also admitted that it is “logistically hard” to provide actual rice instead of the cash subsidy given to 4Ps beneficiaries.
“Pero patuloy kaming nag-uusap ng Department of Agriculture (DA) kung paano ma-implement ito. Kaya logistically hard kasi kung iisipin ninyo, kalat-kalat iyong ating mga benepisyaryo – 4.4 million spread across different areas in the country,” he stated.
Gatchalian said that the DA’s proposal may go against the President’s order to ensure convenient access to all government assistance, however, the DSWD is currently studying the suggestion.
“I told the President we will continue studying, but the President also said na baka logistically mahirapan, so nandoon muna tayo. We’re not saying no, studies are ongoing pero taking into account the logistics na kailangan para hindi mahirapan ang ating mga kababayan,” he added. – avds
