ARMM gets biggest cut of 4Ps budget

Metro Manila, home to at least 232,811 “poorest of the poor” families in the country, will get P3.32 billion in Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) funds next year, bringing to P6.74 billion the allocations for the National Capital Region (NCR) under the government’s flagship poverty alleviation program in 2015 to 2016.

The amount, however, put the NCR’s two-year budget only in 12th position among 17 regions nationwide, which received a total of P125.05 billion, according to a report furnished the Inquirer by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the lead agency implementing the 4Ps.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) got the biggest slice of the budget pie with P6.02 billion and P5.84 billion for 2015 and 2016, respectively, or a total of P11.86 billion.

Bicol was next with P10.34 billion, followed by the Zamboanga Peninsula, P8.85 billion; Western Visayas, P8.68 billion; Southern Tagalog, P8.66 billion; Central Luzon, P8.3 billion; Northern Mindanao, P7.74 billion; Eastern Visayas, P7.65 billion; Central Visayas and Davao region, both with P7.41 billion; Soccsksargen, P7.08 billion; Mimaropa, P5.62 billion; Ilocos, P5.54 billion; Caraga, P5.16 billion; Cagayan Valley, P3.04 billion; and the Cordillera Administrative Region, P1.87 billion.

Between 2011 and 2016, the program budget amounted to P294.62 billion.

President Aquino said the government had earmarked more funds into the program as an “investment for the future of the country’s youth.”

Under the 4Ps, two types of cash grants are given: A health grant of P500 per family per month, or a total of P6,000 every year, and an education grant of P300 per child each month and where a household may register a maximum of three children.

To get these subsidies, children beneficiaries must be enrolled in school and maintain an attendance of at least 85 percent of class days every month. Children aged 5 and below must get regular preventive health checkups and vaccines while those aged 6 to 14 must receive deworming pills twice a year.

Pregnant women beneficiaries must avail themselves of pre- and postnatal care, while parents are required to attend family development sessions, which include topics on responsible parenting, health and nutrition.

DSWD records showed that more than 4.4 million poor households nationwide had benefited from the 4Ps, which also helps the government fulfill its commitments under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals of eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health care.

The program has nearly 1.8 million family beneficiaries in Luzon, 898,099 in the Visayas, and almost 1.7 million in Mindanao, including 409,637 in the ARMM.

To determine other poor families that should be covered by the 4Ps, the DSWD is currently conducting the second round of its National Housing Targeting System for Poverty Reduction, or “Listahanan.”

The profiling was prompted by recent typhoons, floods and other natural disasters that had left many families poor, homeless and jobless in various parts of the country, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said. It “will help us determine who and where the poorest of the poor are,” she said in a statement.

An updated database would be completed shortly, she said. Jerry E. Esplanada