DSWD 2024 budget breezes through House panel

MANILA, Philippines — The P207.3-billion proposed budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development for 2024 breezed through the deliberations of the House committee on appropriations yesterday, owing to DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian being a former congressman.

After Gatchalian presented the proposed P207,368,494 budget of the DSWD, Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab raised a “standing tradition” of the House to “afford a special courtesy” to former members.

“Sec. Rex is a member of 19th Congress and he was my colleague in the 14th and 16th Congress. Shall we go with the process of hearing this budget (because) I remember the standing tradition here is that we do not ask questions for former members of the House, for co-equal branch of government like the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President and judiciary,” he said.

Ungab proposed to let the DSWD budget pass through committee-hearing and go straight to the plenary.

He also moved for the termination of the DSWD’s budget hearing but this was strongly opposed by Lanao del Norte Rep. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro.

A visibly irritated Dimaporo argued that he has no objection with the tradition but there are issues that he wants to raise with DSWD.

Dimaporo’s objection was echoed by Castro, a House deputy minority leader, saying she has “nothing personal” against Gatchalian or DSWD but the budget hearing is an opportunity to ask questions to the agency.

“Although we respect this tradition … we hope we can do our jobs. We should be allowed to ask questions,” she added.

This prompted the panel to open the floor to interpellation, which was done mostly by members of the minority.

Based on the proposed budget, DSWD shall get P207,368,494 next year: P196,355,533 for maintenance and other operating expenses; P10,498,213 billion for personnel services; P354,309 for capital outlay and 160,439 million for retirement and life insurance premiums.

DSWD flagged over 4Ps

The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the DSWD as verification conducted by its audit team revealed that 60.18 percent or 2,991 out of the 4,970 sample beneficiaries that received assistance under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps were not in the official list.

In its 2022 annual audit report on DSWD, the COA said its audit team conducted a cross-verification of 4Ps official list also referred to as Listahanan 2 as against the 4Ps payroll of DSWD Field Office 1 (Ilocos region), 2 (Cagayan Valley), 3 (Central Luzon), 4-A (Calabarzon) and Cordillera Administrative Region.

The COA said the verification and cross-matching revealed that 2,991 or 60.18 percent of the recipients of cash assistance were not in the Listahan 2, even if “the list provided for audit was complete” and that “the eligibility of the selected beneficiaries is questionable.”

The COA said audit findings could also mean that beneficiaries not included in the Listahanan 2 “are still classified as poor and are qualified to be included in the program based on the assessment made by the DSWD.” — Elizabeth Marcelo