DA wants 4Ps changed into livelihood program

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) wants to change the conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme of the government into a livelihood program instead of giving monthly dole-outs to help contribute to farm productivity in the country.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol plans to submit a proposal to President Duterte that will alter rules and mechanisms of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), which was started during the previous administration and has a budget of about P70 billion.

“Instead of giving it out in the forms of dole-out every month, why don’t we start a livelihood program using that money so that the 4Ps beneficiaries would be contributors to agriculture production instead of them not being able to participate right now,” Piñol told reporters on the sidelines of the first Agriculture Trade and Investment Forum yesterday.

“This is the complaint in most provinces, there are no more workers since the people are just waiting for their allowance from the government. It is being implemented for how many years now but there are no changes, we even lost workforce in the agri sector because they no longer want to work,” he added.

Patterned from Latin American and African countries, the 4Ps is a human development measure that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18.

It operates in all the 17 regions in the country covering 79 provinces, 143 cities and 1,484 municipalities.

Piñol said the DA would submit a formal proposal through a memorandum in the next Cabinet meeting scheduled next month.

“The gist is that we should make use of the 4Ps fund for livelihood activities to increase greater food productivity. As to the livelihood, it will be the choice of the beneficiary whether they want vegetable growing or backyard poultry raising among others,” Piñol said.

“This will also return the dignity of our people instead of them lining up in front of ATMs just to get their money,” he added.

While the 4Ps is currently being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Piñol said the DA is willing to help the agency handle the program.

“We are not taking it away from them. We just want it to contribute to greater agriculture productivity instead of giving this money as dole-out. The P70 billion from the government is just being put to waste,” Piñol said.