Solon: Imee move to cut 4Ps fund didn’t expect more beneficiaries

Sen. Imee Marcos during a public hearing of the Committee on Finance on February 21, 2024. Bibo Nueva España /Senate PRIB file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The 2023 proposed budget for the government’s conditional cash transfer program was above what Senator Imee Marcos preferred because the government was expecting to assist more poor families, 4Ps party-list Rep. JC Abalos said on Wednesday.

Abalos in a press briefing at the House complex explained that under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the Listahanan 3 or the process of identifying beneficiaries was supposed to start in 2019, but two fortuitous events prevented it — a reenacted budget in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

This forced the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) — which implements the 4Ps — to distribute funds only to those included in Listahanan 1 and Listahanan 2 despite higher budgets, resulting in unutilized funds by 2022.

“Now, nag-commence ‘yong Listahanan 3, 2019, dapat by 2022 tapos na siya.  So ano ‘yong explanation bakit 45 percent lang ang nagastos ng DSWD?  ‘Yon lang ang nagastos ng DSWD kasi na-exhaust na nila ang pwede nilang gastusin.  Sa madaling salita, ang mga naka-listang pangalan sa Listahanan 2 and Listahanan 1, ‘yan na lang talaga ang pwedeng paggastusan ng DSWD,” Abalos explained.

(The Listahanan 3 commenced in 2019, it should have been done by 2022.  So what is the explanation why DSWD only spent 45 percent of the 4Ps funds?  They only spent that amount because they have exhausted the maximum amount they could spend.  In simpler terms, the DSWD can only spend money for those whose names are in Listahanan 2 and Listahanan 1, the DSWD can only support them.)

The lawmaker said this may have been the basis of Marcos as to why she proposed to slash the DSWD’s budget for 4Ps by P13 million — because it was not used in 2022.  However, Abalos noted that DSWD informed both the House and the Senate that with Listahanan 3 looming in 2023, a higher number of beneficiaries was expected.

“However, the DSWD has informed both chambers of Congress and of course, since 2019 pa sinimulan ang Listahanan 3 and alam nating lahat maraming mahihirap sa Pilipinas at the end of 2022, doon na-complete ang Listahanan 3. And at the beginning of the year (2023) nabuo na ang 4.4 million households, and then d’yan tumiming ang deficit ng P13 billion,” Abalos said.

(However, the DSWD has informed both chambers of Congress and of course, since Listahanan 3 was started in 2019 and we all know there are a lot of poor families by the end of 2022 — the timeframe when the list was completed.  And at the beginning of the year 2023 they were able to complete the list of 4.4 million households, and then that’s when the P13 billion deficit hit.)

“So madaling salita po, ang dahilan kung bakit — I know the good Senator might have good intentions kasi nga nakita niya mababa ang utilization rate ng agency — pero kung bubusisiin natin nang maayos at kakausapin ang ahensya, at aalamin natin ang dahilan kung bakit ‘yan lang ang nagastos, kasi during that time, ‘yan lang talaga ang pwedeng gastusin ng DSWD,” he added.

(In short, the actual reason — I know the good Senator might have good intentions because she saw that the agency’s utilization rate was low — but if we would check properly and talk to the agency, and we would understand the reason, we would know that underutilization happened because DSWD was limited on how much they could spend.)

The issue over the 4Ps came after Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon, in response to Marcos’ tirades about the Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), claimed that the Senator had made realignments in the 2023 budget that led to 4.3 million poor Filipinos not getting cash aid.

Bongalon said the 4.3 million Filipinos amounts to almost 900,000 households who did not get assistance through 4Ps, because Marcos supposedly redirected P13 billion to another social amelioration program.

In response, Marcos said that in the hearings for the 2023 proposed budget, DSWD admitted that only 45 percent of the 4Ps budget was utilized — leading her to propose that rather than having the agency return the funds to the treasury annually, the surplus funds should be allocated to another program.

“During September 2022 hearings for the GAA 2023 budget, the DSWD admitted that – per their financial reports – only 45% of the 4Ps budget had been spent, with a single quarter to go,” Marcos said in a separate statement.

“In order to avoid the threatened return of the unspent 4Ps allotment, I recommended that the balance of PhP8 billion instead be realigned to quickly implementable DSWD projects – so it was divided among supplemental feeding, KALAHI-CIDSS, Quick Response Fund for disasters, and AICS,” she added.

Marcos believes her move also benefited marginalized sectors.

“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 PhP8 billion from the 4Ps was saved and benefited countless marginalized sector.  Meanwhile, Listahanan 3 was finalized, thus updating the 4Ps directory halted by the pandemic,” she noted.

The issue started when Marcos in a Senate hearing raised questions about AKAP, a one-time cash grant for the near-poor, which she believes was inserted during the bicameral conference committee meetings.

READ: DSWD’s AKAP to help workers, not linked to Cha-cha, says solon 

Marcos claimed the said program was unknown to senators — especially her since she sponsored DSWD’s budget for 2024 when it was still being deliberated.  She also speculated that AKAP funds were used to entice people into signing in favor of the People’s Initiative (PI) campaign to amend the Constitution, which some senators believe was being orchestrated by House leaders.

READ: Rep. Tulfo: AKAP is for neglected middle-class workers, not for bribery 

Several House officials have already called out Senator Marcos for her claims, with Bongalon’s fellow Ako Bicol party-list lawmaker, Rep. Elizaldy Co saying that the Senator is dirtying the pure intentions of AKAP.