By Filane Mikee Cervantes/PNA
MANILA — The bill institutionalizing the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, hurdled final reading at the Senate.
During Monday’s session, the chamber approved Senate Bill 2117 with 18 affirmative votes, zero negative vote and no abstention.
The 4Ps is the national poverty reduction strategy that provides conditional cash transfer to poor households for a maximum of five years to improve their health, nutrition, and education.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the bill carries his amendment prioritizing the farmers and fishermen in the 4Ps enrolment, noting that most of the 23.7 million poor are in this sector.
Recto noted that the poverty incidence among farmers is 34.3 percent, while it is 34 percent for fishermen.
Recto also proposed linking 4Ps to livelihood and skills-training programs.
“Hindi dapat dole out na naghihintay na lang ng allowance. Turuan dapat ng employment skills. (This shouldn’t be a dole-out program, where [beneficiaries] are just waiting for their allowance. Employment skills should be taught). This is not merely giving them fish, but teaching them how to fish,” he said.
The bill seeks to mandate the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to conduct and revalidate qualified beneficiaries using a standard targeting system every three years.
Considered eligible for the program are those living in the informal sector, homeless families, indigenous peoples, and those living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.
All beneficiaries shall be automatically covered in the National Health Insurance Program.
A regional and national advisory council headed by the DSWD shall be established to determine the amount of conditional cash transfer each beneficiary may be granted, such as increasing the health and nutrition benefits of qualified beneficiaries from PHP600 to PHP750 every month to compensate the rising prices of rice and other basic health and nutrition needs of the poor, and increasing the conditional cash transfer grant per child enrolled in day care from PHP500 to PHP700 per month for a maximum of ten months per year.
The bill provides a set of conditions that beneficiaries must comply with:
* Children zero to five years old must receive regular preventive health checkups and vaccinations;
* Children one to 18 years old must avail of de-worming pills at least twice a year;
* Children three to four years old must attend day care or pre-school classes at least 85 percent of the time;
* Children five to 18 years old must attend elementary or secondary classes at least 85 percent of the time;
* Pregnant women must avail of pre- and post-natal care and give birth with assistance of a skilled or trained health care professional in a health facility;
* At least one responsible person must attend family development sessions conducted by the DSWD, at least once a month.
