ZAMBOANGA PENINSULA— With the ongoing registration of Set 12 beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a conditional cash transfer program that is implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), netizens ask how to become members of the said program and why they have not been chosen despite having been interviewed by the Department’s field workers.

The Facebook page of the DSWD Region IX has been receiving many queries daily from the netizens who want to receive cash grants from the program that is intended for health and education of their children.

“The beneficiaries of our programs and services in the DSWD come from the Listahanan database which is a targeting system that identifies who and where the poor are. We utilize the database to ensure that the identification of our beneficiaries is objective and that the resources of the government are distributed to those who are really in need,” DSWD-9 Regional Director, Riduan P. Hadjimuddin said.

Hadjimuddin also emphasized in a statement that other government are also mandated to utilize the Listahanan database in identifying beneficiaries of their respective programs and services.

“So everything starts with a household assessment by the Listahanan,” Hadjimuddin added.

It is stipulated in the implementing rules and regulations of the 4Ps Law or the Republic Act 11310 that only poor households identified through the Listahanan assessment shall be eligible to become beneficiaries of the country’s conditional cash transfer program, the 4Ps.

Once a household is identified as POOR, the Listahanan will then submit a list to the 4Ps management for validation. This list of poor of potential 4Ps beneficiaries are now posted on con

spicuous areas in every barangay, mostly at the barangay hall. The public may check the list to see if their household is identified as potential beneficiary to the program.

The 4Ps targets to register an additional of more than 95,000 households in the program in Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula).

The Listahanan conducted the latest household assessment in 2019 and 2020. Current beneficiaries of the 4Ps program (Set 1-11) were identified through the assessment conducted in 2009 and 2015.

Members of the 4Ps receive 750 pesos a month for health (vitamins, medicines, etc.), 700 pesos for every child in Senior High School, 500 pesos for every child in Junior High School, and 300 pesos for every child in Elementary education. The program can only accommodate a maximum of 3 children per household to be granted with monthly educational grant. Apart from this, a family beneficiary also receives 600 pesos per month as rice subsidy.