Marcos refutes solon’s claims on budget realignment affecting 4Ps funds

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Imee Marcos denied on Wednesday allegations that her proposed budget realignments in 2023 led to 4.3 million poor Filipinos not getting their aid through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

In a statement, Marcos noted that in September 2022 hearings for the 2023 budget, the Department of Social Welfare and Development admitted that per financial reports only 45 percent of the 4Ps budget had been spent.

According to Marcos, to avoid the “threatened return” of unspent 4Ps allotment, she recommended that the balance of P8 billion instead be realigned to “quickly implementable” DSWD projects instead.

“So it was divided among supplemental feeding, Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services, Quick Response Fund for disasters, and Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS),” said Marcos.

“My conviction, as it has always been, was that the DSWD budget must be retained at all costs, as the poor would suffer all reductions and losses. Thus the P8 billion from the 4Ps was saved and benefited countless marginalized sectors. Meanwhile, Listahanan 3 was finalized, thus updating the 4Ps directory halted by the pandemic,” she noted.

In terms of the P5 billion AICS reduction, Marcos said it only occurred after she had recommended the amount in the Senate version.

“But the bicameral removed it for lack of fiscal space post-Covid,” she said. “Those two amounts — P8 billion plus P5 billion — are perhaps what some befuddled members are referring to,” she added.

Marcos’ statement was issued after Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon accused the senator of depriving millions of 4Ps benefits due to her proposed budget realignments.

Bongalon said there were almost 900,000 households that did not receive 4Ps because Sen. Marcos supposedly redirected P13 billion to another social amelioration program.

“If we do the math, P13 billion divided by P15,000 per household per year, means 867,000 families or 4.3 million poor individuals got zero cash assistance from the DSWD 4Ps program last year, thanks to Sen. Imee,”  Bongalon said then.

He even noted that the supposed budget realignment “left the most vulnerable sectors without financial aid” possibly until the DSWD receives its 2024 budget.