4Ps beneficiaries excluded from gov’t Food Stamp Program – DSWD

Beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) are ineligible for the government’s Food Stamp Pprogram (FSP), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Thursday.

DSWD Assistant Secretary for Innovations Baldr Bringas said this developed as the P1.89 billion funding allocated for the “Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program” under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) has a special provision exempting 4Ps beneficiaries from the FSP.

“Although nabigyan tayo ng P1.89 billion to implement this program, may special provision po dun na nakalagay to exclude all 4Ps beneficiaries,” Bringas told reporters in a media briefing.

(We were given P1.89B for the implementation of the program. However, there is a special provision excluding 4Ps beneficiaries.)

The DSWD started the six-month pilot implementation of the FSP in July 2023, which isn intended to address involuntary hunger.

Under the program, the DSWD will provide electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that will be loaded with food credits amounting to P3,000 per month to purchase a select list of food commodities from DSWD-registered or -accredited retailers.

In particular, bulk of the food credits shall be allocated to carbohydrate-rich foods such as rice at P1,500, 30% for proteins like meat at P900, and 20% for fruits, vegetables, oil, salt, as well as condiments at P600.

The pilot run, which covered at least 3,000 families in five target areas, was funded by a $3 million grant from the Asian Development Bank.

In October 2023, the DSWD said the flagship program will be fully implemented by July 2024.

“May budget ang food stamp under the GAA but it’s just P1.89 billion for this year. Now for next year, we will need at least P17 billion to implement this program considering na may 600,000 beneficiaries,” said Bringas.

As the program starts to “scale up”, the DSWD will gradually increase the number of beneficiaries from 300,000 in the first year, to another 300,000 in the second year and 400,000 in the third for a total of one million food-poor household-beneficiaries.

The DSWD official reiterated that the food stamp program has conditions for the beneficiaries, including attending nutrition classes and having one employed family member who can later take skills upgrade training under the Department of Labor and Employment or Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

The budget for the full run of the program until 2027 was pegged at P40 billion, covering the identified one million “food poor” families under the DSWD’s Listahanan.—RF, GMA Integrated News