ILOILO CITY (PIA) — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Western Visayas is expecting a total of 144,046 households in the region to exit the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) by 2026.
By virtue of Republic Act No. 11310 or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program Act, this institutionalized the 4Ps, a national poverty reduction program providing conditional cash transfers to poor households, giving beneficiaries a seven-year residency in the program.
“Since we have the official implementation of the program in 2019, we are expecting that by 2026, the first batch of seven-year residency in the program will exit from the 4Ps. We are still working, and our appeal is that we need to pay attention and focus on these households,” said 4Ps division chief Belen P. Gebusion during the Regional Convergence Committee (RCC) first quarter meeting.
The details on the current status of the target households to exit from the program by next year based on the latest assessments conducted by the DSWD shows that 39 households were at Level 1; 109,199 were at Level 2; 23,623 were at Level 3; while 227 have no latest Social Welfare and Development Indicator (SWDI).
According to Gebusion, the graduated or exited households serve as key indicators of the impact of the program.
As of March 31, 2025, a total of 74,795 households have already officially graduated or exited from the program.
“To clarify, of the number, the graduated or the 30,858 are the households that achieved the self-sufficient level of well-being. They are now capable in terms of providing or responding to their daily needs, but still, they are vulnerable if there are shocks,” explained Gebusion.
Gebusion likewise clarified that the 43,937 exited households refer to those that were deactivated from the program by virtue of natural attrition or they no longer have eligible children, as part of the conditions of the program is to have 0-18-year-old children and pregnant members of the household.
“Our interest, of course, is for these 4Ps households to graduate from our program rather than ma-exit sila due to natural attrition or wala na sang eligible nga bata for monitoring,” she expressed.
(Our interest, of course, is for these 4Ps households to graduate from our program rather than to exit due to natural attrition or because there are no longer eligible children for monitoring.)
As per the policy of DSWD, once these households are found to be self-sufficient, they will be given a six-month transition period for them to be really prepared and to be turned over to the local government units for aftercare. (AAL/AGP/PIA 6)
