MANILA -- The administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. assisted 4.3 million households last year under the government’s flagship national poverty alleviation initiative, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said on Saturday.

Undersecretary Edu Punay, the Officer-in-Charge of the DSWD, said in a press briefing that the total number of households that received support in 2022 was 98.3 percent of the DSWD target.

The DSWD undersecretary reported that the government allocated P100 billion solely for the 4Ps program.

Punay said when the administration assumed office in July last year, its objective was to cleanse and update the list of beneficiaries, delist those who are no longer eligible to receive the support and accept a new batch of beneficiaries.

So far last year, the department was able to wean 106,000 beneficiaries although originally, 1.3 million were supposed to exit from the program based on DSWD’s record, Punay said.

Currently, Punay said the DSWD is conducting community validation of the beneficiaries under the 4Ps and expects to further cleanse its list to wean some 500,000 beneficiaries and accept more than 600,000 new beneficiaries this year.

Under the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS), another DSWD major program, Punay said the administration assisted last year 4.4 million beneficiaries, exceeding the department’s target of 1.2 million beneficiaries.

“Ang target namin dito ay 1.2 million beneficiaries lang last year but fortunately or unfortunately, umabot po ng 4.4 million iyong naging beneficiaries namin doon, at nag-overshoot iyong aming pondo doon ng 362 percent. Kaya nanghingi po kami ng mga supplemental budget po doon,” Punay said during the media forum.

The DSWD spent P34.22 billion for the AICS Program last year, he said, adding the AICS Program also has an educational assistance component.

The department also successfully implemented the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens, serving 3.75 million senior citizens nationwide, the DSWD official said.

The department was able to utilize P24.64 billion for the Social Pension project, Punay said, noting the DSWD also successfully lobbied Congress to increase the social pension from P500 to P1,000.

Also, 2 million children benefitted under DSWD’s Supplemental Feeding Program, with the agency spending P4 billion last year for the program.

And for those exiting from 4Ps, the DSWD continues to extend support through the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) to prevent them from slipping to the poverty threshold.

“Last year we were able to help 184,360 households, and utilized P4.64 billion in funding the SLP Program,” Punay pointed out.

The social welfare official also said another DSWD accomplishment is its effective disaster response, which was carried out in close coordination with local government units (LGUs).

According to Punay, the Marcos administration has adopted a very proactive policy in responding to calamities, prepositioning relief items to strategic locations in various localities nationwide prior to the occurrence of a predictable weather disturbance.

“So, ngayon talagang very swift, very fast iyong ating disaster response – within 24 hours from the time of the calamity hit a locality we’re able to deliver iyong mga needed relief items – mga family food packs, nandiyan iyong mga hygiene kits, iyong mga modular tents natin,” Punay said.

Last year, the government extended assistance to 65,000 households, 400 received emergency shelter assistance, and 402,000 households benefitted from the cash-for-work program, the DSWD OIC said. (PND-PCO)