House OKs 4Ps amendments on 3rd reading

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on final reading a bill strengthening the government’s flagship poverty reduction program by expanding aid to include grants for pregnant women and early childhood support.

Lawmakers voted 224-3, with no abstentions, to pass House Bill No. 8647, which seeks to strengthen the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) by making aid more targeted and responsive to help lift more Filipinos out of poverty.

“4Ps should help families through the hardest years, but it should also give them a real bridge toward better income, better education, and better choices for their children,” Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Alexander Marcos said in a statement after the vote.

Institutionalized in 2019, the 4Ps program provides cash grants to households, including a P500 monthly health subsidy per household and an education grant of P300 per child each month for 10 months.

READ: Bill seeking to increase in 4Ps cash grants pushed in House

The bill, a priority measure of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, seeks to peg the health and nutrition grant at not less than P750 per month, while pregnant women and children under two years old would receive at least P850 per month.

It also seeks to provide a monthly P1,000 grant for early childhood development and a P1,500 rice fund per household per month.

Households still deemed poor after seven years in the program will remain eligible, subject to the recommendation of a case manager under the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the bill said.

At least one adult beneficiary must complete either the Alternative Learning System, the entrepreneurship track of the Department of Trade and Industry, or the training program of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, it added.

“The goal is not to keep families dependent on aid forever,” said Marcos. “The better goal is to help them get through the present, then open doors to schooling, skills, jobs, and livelihood so they can eventually leave the program with dignity.”

The proposal also establishes a transition program for households graduating from 4Ps to ensure that state support is not abruptly cut and that they continue to enjoy skills training and employment opportunities under the poverty alleviation program. /mcm