BARMM’s welfare agency: Pols don’t have control over 4Ps

The Bangsamoro Government Center in Cotabato City. (Photo from the Facebook page of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslm Mindanao)

ILIGAN CITY—The Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has allayed fears among voters that their choice of particular candidates will have bearing on the selection of beneficiaries of government’s conditional cash transfer program.

The MSSD made the clarification amid misconceptions circulating in several communities of the region that beneficiaries or would-be beneficiaries should support particular political camps to ensure their enrollment into the program.

In a statement, MSSD said that “elected government officials and local candidates do not have any control over their inclusion and exclusion in the program.”

“Only the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Central Office has the full authority to recommend beneficiaries to be included in 4Ps based on the results of the LISTAHANAN Program, a National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction,” the MSSD said.

4Ps is the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, the official name of the government’s conditional cash transfer scheme.

The MSSD implements the 4Ps in the BARMM for the DSWD.

“Beneficiaries can only be removed in the program if they will not be able to comply with the program conditionalities or if they no longer have a monitored child who attends school,” MSSD explained.

The agency said that it “does not tolerate the misuse and misrepresentation of 4Ps or any of its social protection programs as part of the politicizing of candidates.”

/MUF