Dinky Soliman slams candidates mouthing ‘false promises’ about 4Ps

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

SOCIAL Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman expressed dismay over candidates who are courting the poor with “false promises” and vague talk about amending the administration’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

“There’s one presidential candidate whose promise is to expand the conditional cash grant to senior citizens. But we already have a social pension program since 2012 which has provided money to more than a million elderlies,” Soliman told reporters on Monday.

“Another (presidential candidate) wants to remove the conditions (of the grant). But that’s one of the goals of the 4Ps—to produce effective ways in nurturing the children,” she said. “My only question is, do these candidates really know the mechanism of the 4Ps?”

Soliman aired these sentiments after speaking at an international conference in Makati City that discussed the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program as a tool to eradicate child labor. The conference featured the CCT as adopted by Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, along with its Philippine version, the 4Ps.

Without naming names, she noted that certain Palace contenders had been talking about continuing or improving the program without providing a clear mechanism for doing so.

The people who had benefited from 4Ps know who among the presidential candidates were actually criticizing the program before the campaign season started, she said.

“It’s useless for (these candidates) to promise provisions that are already existing in the program. That’s why I trust (the poor) not to vote for these politicians,” she said.  With a report from John Cyril Yee