Suarez: Realigning P13B funds for 4Ps is like stealing from 4M Filipinos

MANILA, Philippines — Deputy Speaker David Suarez likened moves to realign P13 billion from the government’s conditional cash transfer program to stealing from four million Filipinos, as they were deprived of the financial aid mandated by law.

Suarez said this in a statement after the hearing of the House Committee on public accounts and the Committee on social services regarding the privilege speech from 4Ps Partylist Rep. JC Abalos — who said that Senator Imee Marcos may have failed to anticipate a growing number of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) when she moved to realign funds to other social aid programs.

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

According to Suarez, Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian confirmed that Marcos realigned the funds to other social amelioration programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“Lumabas ‘yung House version natin, maintained intact ‘yung pera ng 4Ps. Now I don’t know what happened in the Senate, why all of a sudden P13 billion was slashed,” Suarez said during the hearing, transcripts of which were sent to reporters on Thursday.

(It appears that in our House version, the fund for the 4Ps were intact. Now I don’t know what happened in the Senate, why all of a sudden P13 billion was slashed.)

“At dahil sa P13 billion natanggal, mayroon 843,000 Filipino families, which is around 4 million poor Filipinos, ang hindi nakatanggap dahil sa budget cut,” he added.

(And because of the P13 billion deducted, we have 843,000 Filipino families, which is around 4 million poor Filipinos, who failed to receive [the aid] because of the budget cut.)

Suarez did not mince his words, saying that it appears the government stole from the poor when 4Ps beneficiaries were deprived of these assistance.

“Ayun ang malungkot. Ngayon hindi ko alam kung paano natin ilalarawan ang isang sitwasyon na ninakawan natin ang isang mahirap. Kasi kalimitan, ang mga mayaman ang ninanakawan. Kaso lang hindi dapat ninanakawan ang mahihirap. Kasi wala na nga silang pera,” he said.

(That is what’s saddening.  Now, I do not know how we would describe this situation where we robbed from the poor.  Because usually, it’s the rich who are robbed. The poor should not be victims because they already have less funds.)

“Tatanggalan pa natin sila ng dapat nila matanggap. Sa palagay ko, hindi kaya ng sikmura ko yan,” he said.

(We would remove funds intended for them. I think I cannot take that.)

Abalos, in previous speeches and statements, explained that it appears Marcos did not consider that the 2023 proposed budget for the 4Ps program was higher because the government was anticipating more poor families to be included.

According to Abalos, the 4P’s 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 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.

The lawmaker said this may have been Marcos’s reason for proposing to slash the DSWD’s budget for 4Ps by P13 million—that it was not fully utilized 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.

“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,” Abalos said last February 21.

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.

READ: Imee Marcos’ budget realigning led to millions not receiving 4Ps — Bongalon 

Gatchalian during the hearing reaffirmed the belief that 4Ps is not an ordinary social aid because the allocation of funds are mandated by law.

INQUIRER.net reached out to Senator Marcos to ask about her reaction to the issue, but the senator refused to comment because the issue has been supposedly repetitive.