4Ps funds hiked to P112.8 billion in proposed 2024 national budget By TED CORDERO, GMA Integrated News

The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) flagship poverty alleviation initiative is getting a bigger allocation under the proposed P5.768-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2024. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the DSWD would get an allocation of P112.8 billion. The 4Ps’ budget for next year is higher by P10.23 billion compared to the P102.61-billion budget the program received in the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA). The amount will benefit 4.4 million eligible household beneficiaries of the program. Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the proposed 4Ps allocation includes P103.161 billion for various cash grants, such as P750 per month for health subsidies catering to 4.4 million households, educational subsidies ranging from P300 to P700 per month for over seven million students, and P600 per month as rice subsidies for 4.4 million households. “The recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2024 shows an increase of P3.725 billion when compared with the actual utilization of P109.111 billion in Fiscal Year 2022,” Pangandaman said. “The rise is due to the increased number of students, moving from 1.493 million senior high school (SHS) students in FY 2023 to an anticipated 1.628 million SHS students in FY 2024, who will be provided with an educational allowance,” she added. In his Budget Message, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he approved the National Economic and Development Authority’s (NEDA) recommendation for the Social Protection Floor (SPF) framework which aims to institutionalize the existing social protection programs. These include the universal healthcare and feeding programs, and the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program, which holds a crucial role in the government’s comprehensive strategy to alleviate poverty and promote social development. The DBM defines the 4Ps as a human development program that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor families to improve the health, nutrition, and education of children ages zero to 18 years old. Beneficiaries of the program are identified through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR). Republic Act (RA) 11315, enacted in April 2019, provides the adoption of a Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) that generates updated data necessary for targeting beneficiaries, more comprehensive poverty analysis, and interventions and monitoring impact over time. —NB, GMA Integrated News

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

POPCOM, gagamit ng ‘digital platforms’ para pagtibayin ang mga ugnayang pampamilya

Mas pinalalawig ng Komisyon sa Populasyon at Pagpapaunlad (POPCOM) ang adhikain nitong pagpapalaganap at pagpapabuti ng pakikipag-ugnayan ng mga nakakatandang Pilipino sa kanilang mga anak na nagdadalaga at nagbibinata. Nitong Setyembre 21, ang POPCOM ay nagsagawa ng isang “parent-teen talk webinar” gamit ang Zoom, kung saan ang isang “interactive program” ang nagbigay ng naaayon na kaalaman at kasanayan sa mga magulang, habang tumulong ito sa mga anak na teenager na maabot ang kanilang buong potensyal. Hinikayat din nito ang mga nanay at tatay na sumali sa malayang usapan, lalo na sa mga usapin ukol sa sex at sekswalidad, na nakikitang makakatulong upang bumaba ang mga bilang ng mga pagbubuntis sa hanay ng mga kabataan. Maaaring mapanood ang webinar sa https://youtu.be/lZ9jrJCjYas. Ayon kay Ikalawang Kalihim (Undersecretary) Juan Antonio A. Perez III, MD, MPH, “ang webinar ay naging isang tagapag-simula at ‘padaluyan’ ng pag-uu
Read more

UP Diliman Professors Share Scientists’ Procurement Struggles at Senate Hearing

By Harvey Sapigao Senate hearing of the revised procurement law (Photo credit: Senate of the Philippines) College of Science (CS) Dean Giovanni Tapang held up a little white device as he finished his presentation. “This is a ₱150,000 component,” he described. “Isa lang gumagawa nito sa buong mundo, pero ang hirap pilitin sila na magregister sa PhilGEPS,” he continued, referring to the requirement that foreign companies must first register to the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) before they can sell products to local scientists. Marine Science Institute (MSI) Deputy Director Dr. Irene Rodriguez explained that the small device is a resin that filters metals in water. “May budget tayo,” she said, “pero ang problema ko ay ‘yung resin na ito.” This and other bottlenecks brought about by the procurement law, or the Government Procurement Reform Act (RA 9184), slow down research and development in the country. UPD leaders were invited to the Senate he
Read more

Gaza war rages into fourth month as Blinken tours Middle East Adel Zaanoun with Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem, --- Agence France-Presse

The Israel-Hamas war raging in Gaza entered its fourth month on Sunday as the army again pounded the besieged Palestinian territory and US top diplomat Antony Blinken was back in the region seeking to avoid a wider escalation. Israeli airstrikes overnight and early Sunday killed at least 64 people in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory, said its health ministry. It said two journalists were killed when their car was struck. The ministry, medics, and witnesses identified them as Mustafa Thuria, a video stringer for Agence France-Presse, and Hamza Wael Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza who earlier lost his wife and two other children in an Israeli strike. Israeli bombardment also claimed other civilian lives in the southern city of Khan Yunis and in the Rafah area near the Egyptian border, where many of the territory's displaced people have sought refuge, AFP correspondents reported. Relatives were mourning the dead at Khan Yunis' European Hospital, am
Read more