Regular 4Ps staff sought
HOUSE Minority Leader and 4Ps party-list Representative Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan filed House Bill No. 7410 which seeks to regularize the employment of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) staff.
Libanan said the government must create new program offices and plantilla positions under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the 4Ps staff who are working very hard but not getting much pay.
Government workers that serve as grassroots implementers of the P103-billion Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) are at risk of becoming poor due to the contractual nature of their jobs, according to Libanan.
“We find it unacceptable that the very people at the frontlines of the government’s fight against poverty are precariously exposed to the hazard of becoming deprived on account of their contractual employment,” Libanan said.
The 4Ps is basically staffed by temporary contract of service or job order workers down to the municipal level.
“They do not have security of tenure, and they have zero social security protection and no benefits whatsoever. And once their work contracts end, they risk joblessness and poverty, along with their families,” Libanan added.
Under the bill, the DSWD would be required to establish permanent offices and positions for 4Ps management and operations at the regional, provincial, city and municipal levels.
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The new 4Ps offices would be staffed by regular heads, social welfare officers, administrative assistants, and monitoring and evaluation personnel, among others.
The 4Ps is the government’s poverty reduction and social development strategy that provides conditional cash aid to poor households.
At present, the DSWD is one of the smallest executive departments in terms of regular plantilla items.
In the 2023 General Appropriations Act’s staffing summary, the DSWD has only 3,335 authorized permanent staffing positions.
