Dagupan City – For violating certain conditions of the program, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) disqualified around 47,078 beneficiaries from the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps) program in the Ilocos region.
“They have reached the maximum of third offense for their misconducts, among which are cash card pawning, gambling, drinking (alcohol) vice,” Jaesem Ryan Gaces, DSWD 1 (Ilocos region) information officer said.
Gaces said that Pangasinan has the most number of delisted beneficiaries at 24,331 followed by 6,063 from Ilocos Norte, 8,937 are from Ilocos Sur, and 7,747 came from La Union.
These former beneficiaries “can no longer avail of the 4Ps’ benefits but they can still avail of other services by DSWD,” the information officer stressed.
In line with this, Gaces sought the public’s assistance in bringing to the attention of DSWD those beneficiaries not following the conditions set by the program to trigger investigation, evaluation and monitoring of offenses.
While many were disqualified, some 6,958 beneficiaries in Ilocos region have been declared self-sufficient as “they are those who voluntarily waived (no longer accept benefits from 4Ps) as they believe, and based on the parameters, (they) can now stand on their own even without government subsidy,” Gaces revealed.
Since there are 15,811 available slots for the 4Ps beneficiaries in the Ilocos region, a general assembly will soon be held this month to fill up the slots vacated by the delisted and waived beneficiaries.
Ilocos region has a total of 189,985 active households under 4Ps while the entire country has a target of 4.4 million poor households under the said program. (Jojo Mangahis)