DSWD-6 eyes inclusion of 134K households in W. Visayas in 4Ps

By Jennifer P. Rendon 

More poor households in Western Visayas might be included in the government’s conditional cash transfer program.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-6 on Thursday said there are around 134,930 new poor households eyed as potential beneficiaries of the agency’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) for this year.

The DSWD-6 came up with the said number after the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), more popularly known as the Listahanan survey, launched its new list of identified-poor households under Listahanan 3 only last week, which placed 5.59 million poorest of the poor families in the country.

“We welcome this development because this is aligned with our vision to free all Filipinos from hunger and poverty and give everyone equal access to opportunities,” DSWD-6 regional director Delia Bagolcol said.

She added that the Pantawid staff, both in regional and field offices, are now preparing for the inclusion of these additional beneficiaries. She added these additional beneficiaries will replace those non-poor households who already graduated or exited from the program and had been included in the cleansing of 4Ps list.

The DSWD had reported that 87,678 households will also be stripped from the 4Ps list in the region.

The number is higher than the 3,493 beneficiaries that was earlier considered for delisting.

In Iloilo, including Iloilo City, 24,476 will be delisted another 23,687 in Negros Occidental, to include Bacolod City.

DSWD-6 will also delist 18,691 families in Capiz; Aklan with 8,829; Aklan with 8,692; and Guimaras with 3,303.

“The cleansing of the 4Ps list was done in response to the directive of the President to ensure that only qualified households must be receiving assistance from the government, particularly in the implementation of the 4Ps,” Bagolcol said.

Meanwhile, DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo has instructed the conduct of an intensified cleansing of the 4Ps list. Most of the number who will be graduating are already tagged as “non-poor” based on the Listahanan database.

The graduating households will be endorsed to their respective Local Government Units (LGUs) for the provision of complementary services subject to their eligibility requirements.

“The goal is to ensure that nobody falls back into poverty again. We have already lifted them and they have improved their well-being. We do not want any household from falling back to the poverty situation that trapped them over the years,” Bagolcol said.