DSWD taps LGUs to implement 4Ps

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) assured the people yesterday that local government units (LGUs) are being tapped as implementors of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) by providing the “supply-side” support such as monitoring and grievance resolution.

However, the DSWD said that the agency is strictly against the participation of local officials in the identification of beneficiaries to maintain impartiality and to avoid the perception of possible political influence.

The DSWD issued the statement in reaction to a statement from Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who said that the 4Ps would have been less prone to leakage if the DSWD tapped LGUs as partners instead of exclusively implementing the cash distribution program of the government.

The DSWD said that the entry of the 4Ps into an LGU starts with the conduct of the Pre-Supply Side Activity where a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) is drawn up between the DSWD and the LGU to formalize partnership regarding program implementation.

Under the agreement, the LGU will commit to provide infrastructure like health stations and educational facilities, to enable the beneficiaries to comply with the health and education requirements.

Apart from this, advisory committees at the provincial and municipal levels are organized and headed by the governor and the town mayor, respectively.

These advisory committees oversee the over-all implementation of the 4Ps in the provincial, city and municipal level, the DSWD explained.

“They are also responsible in ensuring that the commitments of the local government stipulated in the MOA are fulfilled. In addition, they are also tasked to facilitate and address complaints and requests endorsed to the committees,” the department said.

The DSWD stressed that there could be no LGU participation in the identification of families that are also beneficiaries of the program since these were strictly taken from the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction or database of poor families.

The DSWD is now winding up the second assessment of poor families, which will update the 2009 database.

The updated database will then become the basis for the identification of government social protection programs and services, including the 4Ps.

For this second assessment, DSWD has enhanced the targeting system and is now implementing quality control measures such as random re-interviews and spot checks, to ensure that the assessment will produce accurate and reliable results.