Policy and declared intent
- The State promotes a just and dynamic social order by uplifting citizens and marginalized sectors from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment, a rising standard of living, and an improved quality of life.
- The State commits to social justice under Article XIII of the 1987 Constitution, including:
- Protecting and enhancing the right of all the people to human dignity;
- Reducing social, economic, and political inequalities and removing cultural inequities;
- Equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the common good; and
- Creating economic opportunities based on freedom of initiative and self-reliance.
- The Act establishes 4Ps as an intervention that invests in human capital and improves delivery of basic services to the poor, particularly education, health and nutrition, to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
- The State’s program direction includes:
- Breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty through investment in human capital and improved delivery of basic services, including early childhood care and development;
- Promoting gender equality and empowerment of women and children’s rights; and
- Supporting goals of universal primary education, reducing child mortality and malnutrition, improving maternal health, and ensuring healthy lives and well-being for all.
Key program definitions
- Authorized Government Depository Banks are banking institutions accredited and managed by government, also categorized as GOCCs or government financial institutions.
- Case Management is a process used by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to enable household-beneficiaries to improve functioning by dealing with difficulties in complying with program terms.
- Compliance Verification is the checking and monitoring to ensure qualified household-beneficiaries comply with conditions for entitlement under 4Ps.
- Conditional Cash Grant is the amount received by qualified household-beneficiaries who comply with conditions for entitlement.
- Grantee is the most responsible adult member of the qualified household-beneficiary authorized to receive the conditional cash transfer.
- Grievance Redress System is the mechanism of the DSWD that addresses and resolves issues and concerns related to program implementation.
- Health Facility includes a barangay health station, rural health unit, barangay health center, infirmary, or hospital.
- Institutionalization is making 4Ps an added function of the DSWD and a regular program funded from its annual appropriation.
- Poor refers to households whose income falls below the poverty threshold as defined by NEDA and cannot afford, in a sustained manner, minimum basic needs of food, health, education, housing, and other essential amenities of life.
- Preventive Health Check-up includes complete immunization, deworming, growth and development monitoring, management of childhood diseases and malnutrition, and services for pregnant, lactating, and post-partum women.
- Qualified Household-Beneficiaries are households identified by the DSWD for entitlement to monthly conditional cash grants under Section 6.
- Responsible Person is the parent or guardian in the qualified household-beneficiary.
- Standardized Targeting System is the system for identifying poor households and their location through a socioeconomic database of poor households adopted by national government agencies and implemented by the DSWD.
- Sustainable Livelihood Program is DSWD’s livelihood and capability building program for the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized, providing one-time livelihood assistance through:
- Microenterprise development (MD); and
- Employment facilitation (EF).
Program nature, duration, and eligibility coverage
- The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a national poverty reduction strategy and a human capital investment program providing conditional cash transfer to poor households for a maximum period of seven (7) years to improve health, nutrition, and education.
- The National Advisory Council (NAC) may recommend a longer period under exceptional circumstances.
- On a nationwide basis, the DSWD selects qualified household-beneficiaries using the Standardized Targeting System.
- The DSWD performs regular revalidation of beneficiary targeting every three (3) years.
- The following are automatically included in the standardized targeting system conducted by the DSWD:
- Farmers;
- Fisherfolks;
- Homeless families;
- Indigenous peoples;
- Those in the informal settler sector; and
- Those in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, including those in areas without electricity.
- To be eligible for cash grants, households or families must:
- Be classified as poor and near-poor based on the Standardized Targeting System and the poverty threshold issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) at the time of selection;
- Have members aged zero (0) to eighteen (18) years old, or have members who are pregnant at the time of registration; and
- Be willing to comply with the conditions specified by the Act.
Cash grants: amount and transfer design
- The Advisory Council determines the amount of conditional cash transfer to beneficiaries using the minimum schemes in Section 7.
- Day care and elementary (per child):
- Not lower than PHP 300.00 per month per child for a maximum of ten (10) months per year.
- Junior high school (per child):
- Not lower than PHP 500.00 per month per child for a maximum of ten (10) months per year.
- Senior high school (per child):
- Not lower than PHP 700.00 per month per child for a maximum of ten (10) months per year.
- Health and nutrition grant:
- Not lower than PHP 750.00 per month for a maximum of twelve (12) months per year.
- The health/nutrition grant aims to promote healthy practices and family development, improve health/nutritional status of pregnant and post-partum mothers, infants, and young children, and increase use of health services by the household-beneficiary.
- The health grant is a fixed amount and does not depend on the number of members in the household.
- The DSWD provides beneficiaries direct and secured access to cash grants through Authorized Government Depository Banks (AGDBs).
- For localities not adequately served by an AGDB, the DSWD may contract through itself or through an AGDB the services of:
- Rural banks;
- Thrift banks;
- Cooperative banks; and
- Institutions engaged in money remittances duly accredited by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Health insurance coverage and entitlement conditions
- All 4Ps beneficiaries identified by the Standardized Targeting System as qualified household-beneficiaries are automatically covered in the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP).
- Necessary funding for NHIP coverage is sourced from revenue generated pursuant to Republic Act No. 10351, otherwise known as the “Sin Tax Reform Act of 2012.”
- Qualified household-beneficiaries must comply with entitlement conditions for continued eligibility, including:
- Pregnant women must avail pre-natal services, give birth in a health facility attended by a skilled health professional, and receive post-partum care and post-natal care for the newborn;
- Children zero (0) to five (5) years old must receive regular preventive health and nutrition services, including check-ups and vaccinations;
- Children one (1) to fourteen (14) years old must avail deworming pills at least twice a year;
- Children three (3) to four (4) years old must attend day care or pre-school classes at least eighty-five percent (85%) of their time;
- Children five (5) to eighteen (18) years old must attend elementary or secondary classes at least eighty-five percent (85%) of their time; and
- At least one (1) responsible person must attend family development sessions conducted by the DSWD at least once a month.
- Any or all entitlement conditions may be suspended by the DSWD Secretary during times of calamities, war, and armed conflicts.
Noncompliance process and livelihood support
- If the responsible person of a reported qualified household-beneficiary fails to comply with conditions under Section 11, the responsible person is notified in writing and cash grant payment is immediately terminated.
- After four (4) months of noncompliance, the household-beneficiary undergoes the case management process of the DSWD.
- If, after receipt of the written notification, the qualified household-beneficiary persists in not complying within one (1) year, the household-beneficiary is removed from the program.
- Qualified household-beneficiaries must be given priority in availing modalities and interventions under the DSWD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) or other appropriate or similar programs of other government agencies or accredited private institutions.
- Qualified household-beneficiaries are also given priority in availing employment facilitation services provided by the SLP or other employment programs of appropriate government agencies implementing the same.
Administration, monitoring, and reporting duties
- The DSWD serves as the central planning, coordinating, implementing, and monitoring body of the Program.
- DSWD functions include selecting and using an effective and cost-efficient method to identify and select qualified household-beneficiaries; identifying and selecting target household-beneficiaries through a uniform, objective, and transparent process as in Section 5; and coordinating with national and local government agencies including private sector organizations to ensure full implementation of statutory commitments.
- DSWD must set up participatory monitoring and evaluation systems and methodologies to assess compliance of conditions, operations, and output and impact assessments, coordinating with the NAC and with the Independent Monitoring Committee at national and local levels to verify compliance monthly.
- DSWD must recommend to the NAC measures and policies for responsive delivery of commitments, identify 4Ps coverage based on the Standardized Targeting System, provide seminar-workshops and training on conditions and other actions, and organize annually a session on entrepreneurship and disaster preparedness and risk reduction or arrange a community development activity in the barangay or municipality or city as available.
- DSWD must submit an annual report to Congress covering operations, financial status, and other relevant data.
- DSWD must formulate implementing rules and guidelines and perform other necessary or incidental functions for proper implementation.
- Advisory councils exist at regional and national levels, headed by the DSWD.
- Regional advisory councils and the NAC include representatives from the DSWD, DOH, DepEd, DA, DOLE, DTI, DAR, DOST, and TESDA, and two (2) representatives from accredited nongovernmental organizations working or monitoring social welfare service programs.
- Advisory council functions include regular meetings to promote coordination and resolve implementation issues; recommending to the President measures and policies for delivery of commitments and integration with general poverty reduction strategy; ensuring livelihood, training, and employment facilitation funding requirements are included in annual budgets; promulgating a grievance redress system and accepting complaints and grievances; and reviewing independent monitoring and assessment reports and submitting policy recommendations to Congress.
- An Independent Monitoring Committee exists at regional and national levels, composed of representatives from the private sector and CSOs, and it must submit monitoring results reports to the respective regional advisory councils and the NAC.
- DSWD conducts regular monitoring and must report program status to the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Philippines at least once every three (3) years to ensure attainment of Section 2 goals.
- DSWD must annually publish and submit to Congress (before submission of the President’s Budget Message) a full report on the previous fiscal year that includes financial disclosures, number of households in 4Ps, and recommendations to the Advisory Council, the President, and both chambers of Congress.
Program assessment, transparency, and convergence
- The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) must conduct an impact assessment every three (3) years after effectivity to evaluate effectiveness of 4Ps, veracity of the household-beneficiary list, and program implementation.
- The amounts in Section 7 must be made available to qualified household-beneficiaries during the first three (3) years of implementation.
- Every six (6) years after effectivity, PIDS must recommend to the NAC whether cash grants shall be adjusted to their present value using the consumer price index as published by the PSA.
- The NAC must ensure grant amounts are sufficient to create positive impact on health, nutrition, and education and are timely received and spent by beneficiaries.
- DSWD must guarantee convergence of government programs and services for the poor, ensuring targeted household-beneficiaries are alleviated from poverty and remain non-poor even after the maximum period for conditional cash grant, with focus on operational efficiency and strengthening inter-agency partnership, and the government must monitor performance for sustainability and positive impact.
- DSWD must regularly and timely post and update on its website reports of financial disclosures and information about beneficiaries by geographical area and social, economic, and cultural circumstances.
- A Congressional Oversight Committee (4Ps Oversight Committee) is constituted upon effectivity, sets overall framework to review implementation, determines inherent weaknesses in the law, and recommends remedial legislation or executive measures.
- The 4Ps Oversight Committee has fourteen (14) members, with the chairpersons of the House Committee on Poverty Alleviation and the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development as co-chairpersons, and six (6) members from each House designated by the Speaker and the Senate President, respectively.
- For remedial legislation, the 4Ps Oversight Committee must conduct a sunset review within three (3) years after effectivity, including systematic evaluation of impact, accomplishments, and performance of implementing agencies.
Appropriations, implementing rules, penalties, and clauses
- The amount necessary to carry out the Act is charged against amounts authorized in the current and subsequent General Appropriations Act.
- Within six (6) months from effectivity, the Secretary of the DSWD, in coordination with appropriate government departments and agencies with the participation of local government units, must promulgate necessary rules and regulations to carry out the Act.
- The Act penalizes any person who, by act or omission, inserts or allows insertion of data or false information, or diverts what ought to be contained in the registry, with the view of altering the fact or aiding the grant of money to persons other than qualified household-beneficiaries:
- Imprisonment of not less than one (1) month but not more than one (1) year, or
- A fine of not less than Ten thousand pesos (PHP 10,000.00) but not more than One hundred thousand pesos (PHP 100,000.00), or
- Both imprisonment and fine, at the discretion of the court.
- A public official who commits acts provided for under the penalties is penalized with temporary disqualification to hold public office.
- Administrative sanctions are imposed without prejudice to prosecution in the proper courts.
- If any provision is found unconstitutional, the unconstitutional provision is severed and the remainder remains enforceable (separability clause).
- Laws, decrees, letters of instruction, resolutions, orders, or parts thereof inconsistent with the Act are repealed, modified, or amended accordingly (repealing clause).