THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) continues to clean its list of beneficiaries of the “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program” (4Ps) to provide assistance to those who are eligible for the program.

In yesterday’s Forum sa Dapo in Quezon City, DSWD Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Edu Punay explained that the move is to ensure that financial assistance will be given to the “right beneficiaries.”

“Last year, upon assumption of the Marcos administration, we started to update our list since marami sa mga beneficiaries ay matagal na sa programa at marami ang nasa wait list. Kailangan na natin silang i-accommodate,” Punay stressed.

Punay reported that they are closely monitoring the beneficiaries to see if the assistance being given to them is being used for its “original purpose.”

He disclosed that last year, there were 4,323,450 households benefitted from the program, which is 98.3% of their annual target of 4.9 million household beneficiaries.

With the number of assisted beneficiaries, the DWSD has shelled out at least P90.28 billion.

Punay further disclosed that there were 160,000 beneficiaries who had already graduated from the program, which means that the children of these beneficiaries had already finished their secondary education.

“Ito yung mga pamilya na may anak na istudyante na below 17 years old. Originally last year, 1.3 million dapat ang ga-graduate but the list was not updated. Aside from that, may mga families pa rin that were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, so meron pang 500,00 beneficiaries na naiwan,” Punay explained.

Hopefully, Punay said that another 500,000 will graduate this year to accommodate more than 600,000 beneficiaries.

He said they target at least 4.9 million households annually to be included in the program.

“Malaking challenge po ito sa DSWD, isa po dyan ay ang identification ng household, kung sino talaga ang qualified sa 4Ps program dahil napakarami talaga na nasa wait list,” Punay added.

“Hopefully, by the end of this month, maayos na po natin ang listahan, makumpleto na po natin ang 500,000 na additional na papalitan natin sa 4Ps,” he said.

He added that the beneficiaries who were already graduated from the program were given an amount of P15,000 for each household as start-up financing for their business.

“With this assistance, we see to it that these beneficiaries who graduated from the program can sustain their livelihood through the start-up financial,” Punay claimed.