‘No overlap in 4Ps, food stamp programs’

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is not worried at all that beneficiaries of President Marcos’ Food Stamp Program (FSP) and the 2008 conditional cash transfer program would overlap, saying this would in fact complement each other.

“The overlap may only be about less than 40 percent where Food Stamp beneficiaries may be included in 4Ps. The (FSP) only has one million beneficiaries. But this may actually be better because 4Ps recipients might exit from the program earlier than expected,” said DSWD Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez.

The 4Ps or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a social protection program launched by the Arroyo administration in 2008 and expanded by the Aquino administration in 2010.

Lopez explained that the FSP tackles hunger as it goes “directly to the beneficiary’s stomach” while the 4Ps aims to “break the inter-generational cycle of poverty.”

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian earlier said Marcos has approved the FSP’s 2024 budget to ensure that one million “food-poor” families will continue to benefit from the meal augmentation program.

“There is also the 4Ps wherein 4.4 million ‘poorest of the poor’ households or 20 million individuals continue to benefit from the program through the monthly subsidy for their children’s education as well as monthly health subsidy,” he said.

Gatchalian added that the 4.4 million 4Ps beneficiaries and the one million FSP beneficiaries are expected to further push down the number of poor families in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the DSWD is teaching financial literacy to 4Ps beneficiaries.

“They need to know about budgeting, about how to budget their money. That’s why we’re teaching them about the benefits of financial literacy,” Gemma Gabuya, 4Ps national program manager, told reporters in a briefing.

Gabuya explained that when the 4Ps was launched in 2008, the funds that went into the automated teller machine (ATM) cards of beneficiaries were only from the agency.

“But now, we have made it a deposit or savings account,” she noted.

“These are the new features of financial literacy that we are teaching them. Now, deposits made to their ATMs or bank accounts can be used for groceries for their daily needs,” she added.