VISITATION. A social worker visits a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program(4Ps) in this undated photo to assess her well-being. Negros Oriental has delisted more than 700 households in the last three years and has identified some 35,000 potential beneficiaries as replacements. (Photo courtesy of DSWD Region VII Facebook)
DUMAGUETE CITY – At least 35,000 households in Negros Oriental have been identified as potential recipients of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to replace thousands who were delisted over the past years.
Reggie Locsin, 4PS Provincial Link for Negros Oriental, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Friday that as of Aug. 18, a total of 749 households in Negros Oriental have been delisted from the Pantawid program from 2021-2023 due to natural attrition.
Natural attrition means that these households no longer have children aged zero to 18 who qualify for the Pantawid assistance and have exited the program, Locsin said.
Aside from natural attrition, other reasons for the delisting of 4Ps beneficiaries include exceeding the seven-year membership to the program as mandated by law and/or having leveled up.
Some 633 4Ps beneficiaries were removed from the list between 2021 and 2022 after they reached Level 3 or after they were declared self-sufficient, Locsin added.
A few have even volunteered to drop out of the program after they were employed as teachers or police personnel or have other sustainable jobs, she added.
Locsin said they are constantly monitoring the 4Ps beneficiaries to ensure their well-being, stressing that households whose children dropped out of school were not immediately removed from the program.
They are still given a chance to return to school and there are processes to follow before a beneficiary can be dropped from the list, she added.
To date, Negros Oriental has 78,586 active beneficiaries, and 977 others are also recipients of the Conditional Cash Transfer registered as indigenous peoples (IPs).
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) assists the government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the identification and monitoring of these 4Ps beneficiaries, Locsin said.
The IPs receive livelihood assistance on top of the usual payouts given to beneficiary-households, she added.
Since the start of the Pantawid in 2009, a total of 11,576 beneficiaries in Negros Oriental were removed from the program for varied reasons, she added.
The Pantawid program will begin its registration of the 34,937 potential households in September and will run until December. (PNA)
