ZAMBOANGA PENINSULA—For more than a decade, the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) have been receiving interventions and social services to help them improve their level of well-being. Many Filipino families have been living testimonies of the impact of the country’s conditional cash transfer program.

To celebrate the 16 years of the program and the 5^th year of the Republic Act 11310, an act that institutionalized the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the beneficiaries participated in a region-wide initiative dubbed as the “4Ps Gives Back”.

The 4Ps Gives Back is an activity where the beneficiaries from the entire Zamboanga Peninsula simultaneously conducted community activities such as barangay clean-up drives, coastal clean-up, drainage clean-up, tree-planting, tutorial and feeding for kids, etc.

“This is probably the first time that such an activity was conducted -a simultaneous give-back activity from the beneficiaries themselves. This is a manifestation of the active citizenship that the program has been advocating since the inception of the 4Ps,” DSWD-9 Regional Director Riduan P. Hadjimuddin said.

Last June 10, 2024, all 4Ps beneficiaries from Zamboanga City, Isabela City, 16 municipalities in Zamboanga Sibugay, 27 cities and municipalities in Zamboanga Del Norte, and 26 city and municipalities in Zamboanga Del Sur.

“This is the 4Ps way of expressing our gratitude for the support that we received especially now that we are celebrating the 5^th year of 4Ps Act”, 4Ps Regional Program Coordinator Flordeliza A. Atuy said.

In Siay, Zamboanga Sibugay, the beneficiaries have opened a FREE PANTRY where they displayed their produce from their gulayan sa barangay and give them freely to anyone who wish to serve delicious and nutritious food for their families.

The Gulayan sa Barangay is also an initiative of the 4Ps that encourages its beneficiaries to cultivate and sustain communal, container, or backyard gardens to ensure staple food especially to support the nutrition of children.

The Regional Program Management Office (RPMO) of the 4Ps in Zamboanga Peninsula plans to make this activity an annual part of the celebration of the 4Ps Anniversary.