DSWD: 4Ps delisting on hold
Credit to Author: Sheila Crisostomo| Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development has imposed a moratorium on the delisting of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries whose lives have already improved, according to DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian.
Facing the House committee on appropriations for the deliberation of the agency’s proposed P207,368,494 budget in 2024, Gatchalian said they decided to suspend the delisting pending re-assessment of the lists of their beneficiaries.
He noted that the cleansing of the list had resulted in the “low utilization rate” of the P94.3-billion funding for 4Ps this year, pegged at only 13.4 percent.
“This is a bit low because we are completing the validation and the assessment of the 4Ps beneficiaries tagged non-poor under Listahanan 3,” he added.
Under the plan, those who will be delisted from the program will be replaced by those in the waiting list.
Meanwhile, DSWD Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez said they are also in the process of removing the duplicate entries in the list of 4Ps beneficiaries that resulted in the overpayment of P7 million in the years 2020 and 2021.
He pointed out that as of June 5, the 4Ps National Program Management Office and the National Household Targeting Office have completed the validation process for 316 out of the 370 households which were the subject of the Commission on Audit (COA)’s 2022 report.
“Of the 316 households that have undergone the validation process, 186 households, or 58.68 percent, were verified as duplicates. These will be immediately delisted from the 4Ps program while the excess cash grants to the duplicates will be recovered by DSWD through their active accounts that were retained,” he added.