The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has validated more than 400,000 waitlisted households, as of October 31, that are eligible for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

“These 434,317 households are next in line to replace the beneficiaries who have graduated from the program through the ‘Pugay Tagumpay’ ceremony,” DSWD Asst. Secretary Irene Dumlao, the agency spokesperson, said on Sunday (December 22).

Meanwhile, a total of 1,184,768 potential households are up for validation to determine whether they are eligible based on the program’s criteria, according to the DSWD spokesperson.

To be eligible for the program, identified poor and near poor households or families must be willing to comply with the conditionalities and must have 0-18 years old family member; and/or with a pregnant family member at the time of registration.

Once validated and found to be eligible, they will replace the beneficiaries who have already exited from the program.

It can be recalled that in July 2023, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian ordered the re-assessment of the 4Ps beneficiaries who were tagged as “non-poor” by the Listahanan 3. The re-assessment resulted in the reinstatement of more than 700,000 4Ps beneficiaries.

The 4Ps program has been continuously facilitating the graduation of households who no longer have eligible children for education grants or those enrolled in the elementary, high school, and senior high school.

Launched in 2008 and institutionalized by Republic Act No. 11310 in 2019, the 4Ps is the national poverty reduction strategy and human capital investment program that provides conditional cash transfer to poor households for a maximum period of seven years to improve their children’s health, nutrition, and education.

Each household beneficiary receives Php750 per month for health; Php300 per child in elementary, Php500 per child in junior high school, and Php700 per child in senior high school for education, with a maximum of three children per household for 10 months in a school year; and a monthly rice subsidy of Php600 for active and compliant households.

More than 4 million households nationwide are registered beneficiaries of the 4Ps. (AKDL)