State Dining Room, Malacañan Palace
February 20, 2024
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. issued several directives to address the impact of inflation on the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) during a sectoral meeting at the State Dining Room in Malacañan Palace.
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian led the presentation, highlighting the challenges faced by the 4Ps program amid rising inflation. He pointed out that inflation has eroded the value of the 4P’s grants, reducing the purchasing power of the grants by 18% from 2019 to 2023. Without intervention, he projected that by 2028, 4Ps beneficiaries might only be able to purchase approximately 67.6% of what they used to in 2019.
One of the critical issues included the country’s performance in reducing the stunted growth of children under 5 years of age. The Philippines’ progress has stalled, ranking as the second worst in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), following Indonesia.
To address this issue, the DSWD proposed providing an additional PhP400 or PhP13 per day as an incentive for pregnant women or children aged 0 to 2 years for 12 consecutive months, conditional upon access to prenatal services, delivery attended by a skilled worker, postpartum care or visits, postnatal visits for newborns, and check-ups and vaccinations until 2 years old.
The proposal also recommended increasing cash grants for the following 4Ps beneficiaries, subject to specific conditions: from PhP300 to PhP400 for day care and elementary, from PhP500 to PhP700 for junior high school, from PhP700 to PhP900 for senior high school, all provided for 10 consecutive months. Additionally, each household would receive an increase from PhP750 to PhP1,000 for 12 consecutive months.
Secretary Gatchalian assured them that if the inflation rate continues to rise at a 4% rate, the proposed measures would future-proof the grants until 2028. These measures would also ensure that 4Ps beneficiaries with pregnant mothers and children under 0-2 years old would receive additional resources to meet their needs.
As per the latest data, a total of 730,509 beneficiaries of the 4Ps have graduated from the Program. The DSWD also requested for an updated list of 4Ps beneficiaries from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), since the most recent data dates back to 2019.
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