‘No ongoing registration, enrollment for 4Ps’

By Jennifer P. Rendon

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Region 6 issued an advisory Thursday against recruitment and enrollment for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the government’s conditional cash transfer to indigents.

Atty. May Rago-Castillo, DSWD-6 regional information officer, said the agency is not doing any registration, enlistment, or enrollment for the 4Ps.

4Ps is a poverty reduction strategy that provides grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14.

“We have Listahanan, which serves as our database for poor households,” Castillo said.

Listahanan or the national household targeting system for poverty reduction (NHTS-PR) is an information management system that employs geographic targeting, household assessment, and validation in order to identify and select potential beneficiaries for various poverty alleviation and social protection programs.

Castillo said Listahanan is done regularly.

DSWD-6 issued the advisory after receiving reports of alleged recruitment and enrollment to 4Ps program, especially in Capiz province.

“So, qualified 4Ps beneficiaries don’t need to apply or register because we have already that ready database,” she said.

Castillo also clarified that the agency does not ask for any payment from anyone who wants to become a 4Ps beneficiary.

While the initial list of potential beneficiaries for 4Ps came from Listahanan, the approved list of qualified beneficiaries will depend on the eligibility requirements as prescribed in the existing program guidelines.

The report may have stemmed from the confusion between party-list group Pagtibayin at Palaguin ang Pangkabuhayang Pilipino Party-list (4Ps) and the DSWD’s program for poor Filipinos.

Last April, the DSWD-6 also reiterated it was not enlisting supposed beneficiaries for 4Ps.

The agency issued the advisory after monitoring an individual soliciting information from residents of an undisclosed town in Antique.

The person was wearing a vest with a DSWD-NCR logo. He was allegedly asking persons who are not yet 4Ps beneficiary to enroll in the program.

For them to be enrolled, the DSWD employee poser was asking for the copies of birth certificate, with the promise that they would be automatically enrolled in the program.

The DSWD-6 called on the public not to give out their personal details or provide copies of their birth certificate or their account numbers.