NTATIVES
RECEIVED
pare:_19 JUL 2015

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES }
First Regular Session

TION UNIT

Introduced by Representative
~~ NOL ST RVICE

House Bill No. 1694
EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a social development and poverty
reduction strategy that provides cash grants to poor households to improve their health,
nutrition, and education, particularly of children zero to 14 years. 4Ps is the flagship program
of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DWSD) on poverty reduction. It is a
social development program that invests in human capital through the provision of
conditional cash grants to poor households. Through 4Ps, it is hoped that health and
nutrition of pregnant women and children aged zero to 14 years old will be improved through
their availment of preventive health check-ups, vaccines and immunizations. 4Ps also aims
to increase the enrollment and attendance rate of children aged 3-14 years old. The 4P.
grants a family with a maximum of three children in school a P1,400 monthly subsidy or
P1,000 annually At present, 4Ps covers one million poor households in 17 regions in the

country.

In order to be qualified to be a beneficiary of the 4Ps, certain conditions must be
complied with. These conditions were imposed by the DSWD. This bill, therefore, seeks to
strengthen these conditions and provide for additional conditions to be complied with before
families can benefit from the 4Ps.

In View of the foregoing, immediate approval of this bill is earnestly requested

i}

MAXIMO B. RODRIGUEZ, JR.


SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES }
First Regular Session

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Introduced by Representative Maximo B. Rodriguez, Jr.

House Bill No. 1634

AN ACT
INSTITUTIONALIZING THE PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM (4Ps) TO
REDUCE POVERTY AND PROMOTE HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND
PROVIDING FUNDS THEREFOR

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress
assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. ~ This Act shall be known as the "Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino
Program (4Ps) Act’.

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - The State recognizes the need to strengthen the solidarity
of the family and actively promote its total development.

The State further recognizes its obligation to promote a just and dynamic social order
that will ensure the prosperity and independence of the nation and free the people trom
poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment, a
rising standard of living, and an improved quality of life for all,

The State furthermore recognizes the need to protect the poor; thus, the State
hereby declares it a policy to:

a. provide assistance to the poor to alleviate their immediate needs;

b. break the intergenerational cycle of poverty through investment in human capital and
improved delivery of basic services to the poor, particularly education, health and
nutrition;
promote gender equality and empowerment of women;
achieve universal primary education;
reduce child mortality; and
improve matemal health.

me@ao

SEC. 3, Definition of Terme, ~ As used in tis Act:
Case Management refers to a process used by the Department of Social Welfare
and Development (DSWD) to enable the household-beneficiaries improve their
functioning by dealing with their difficulties specifically in complying with the
conditionalities of the program;

b. Compliance Verification refers to the checking and monitoring done to ensure that
the qualified household-beneficiaries comply with conditions for entitlement set forth
by the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program:

¢. Conditional Cash Grant refers to the amount being received by the qualified
household-beneficiaries who comply with the conditions for entitlement;

d, Extremely Poor refers to households, duly identified by the standardized targeting
system, whose income falls short of enabling them to provide even just their
nutritional requirements;

e. Grantee refers to the most responsible adult member of the qualified household-
beneficiary authorized to receive the conditional cash transfer;

f. Grievance Redress System refers to the mechanism of the DSWD which addresses
and resolves issues and concems related to the implementation of the Program;

g. Health Facliity refers to a barangay health station, rural health unit or primary

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hospital;

h. Health Service Providers refer to barangay health workers, barangay nutrition
scholars and midwives:

i. Poor refers to households whose income falls below the poverty threshold as defined
by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and cannot afford in a
sustained manner to provide their minimum basic needs of food, health, education,
housing and other essential amenities of life.

|. Preventive Health Check Up refers to health services comprising of complete
immunization, deworming, weight monitoring and management of childhood
diseases;

k. Program refers to the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) which is the
national poverty reduction strategy that provides conditional cash transfer to poor
households to improve their health, nutrition and education;

|. Qualified Household-Beneficiaries refer to households identified by the DSWD for
entitlement of the monthly conditional cash grant;

m, Responsible Person refers to the parent or guardian in the qualified household.
beneficiary; and

n. Standardized Targeting System refers to a system for identifying who and where the
poor households are through the generation of socio-economic database of poor
households that is adopted by national government agencies and implemented by
the DSWD.

SEC. 4, Selection of Qualified Household-Beneficiaries. - On a nation-wide basis, the
Department shall select qualified household-beneficiaries using a standardized targeting
system. The DSWD shall conduct a revalidation of targeting of beneficiaries every three (3)
years.

SEC. 5. Local Verification Committee. — A Local Verification Committee shall be created in
every municipality or city composed of two (2) local government unit representatives, an
accredited health-service provider from the barangay, a representative of an accredited civil
society organization, and the school head as designated by the Department of Education
(DepEd)

The Committee shall be tasked to ensure that the initial list of beneficiaries satisfies
the eligibility requirements set forth under this Act.

SEC. 6. Conditional Cash Transfer. — Subject to certain conditions, each qualified
household-beneficiary shall receive a conditional cash transfer equivalent to Five hundred
pesos (Ph P500.00) per month for health and nutrition expenses or the equivalent of Six
thousand pesos (PhP6,000.00) per qualified household-beneficiary per year.

A maximum of three (3) children per qualified household-beneficiary shall be given
conditional cash grants for educational expenses:

a. Three hundred Pesos (P300.00) per month per child enrolled in elementary
or the equivalent of Three thousand pesos (PhP3,000.00) per a 10-month
school year;

b. Five hundred Pesos (P500.00) per month per child enrolled in junior high
school or the equivalent of Five thousand pesos (P5,000.00) per a 10-month
school year: and

¢. Seven Hundred Pesos (P700.00) per month per child enrolled in senior high
school or the equivalent of Seven thousand pesos (P7,000,00) per a 10-
month school year.

A supplementary education grant of Three hundred pesos (P300.00) per month shall
be given to the child in elementary or high school who has maintained passing grades in all
subjects after the second year of availment of the program.

SEC. 7. Conditions for Entitlement. — All qualified household-beneficiaries shall comply
with the following conditions as a requirement for continued program eligibility:

a. children zero (0) to five (5) years old must receive regular preventive health check-

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ups and vaccinations;

b. children six (6) to thirteen (13) years old must avail of de-worming pills at least twice
ayer;

c. children three (3) to five (5) years old must attend day care or pre-school classes at
least eighty-five percent (85%) of the time;

d. children must attend elementary or high school classes at least eighty-five percent
(85%) of the time;

e. pregnant women must avail of pre- and post-natal care and give birth with the
assistance of a skilled or trained health care professional in a health facility;

fat least one (1) responsible person must attend family development sessions and
natural family planning sessions conducted by the DSWD, at least once a month:

g. at least one (1) responsible person must join and complete at least two (2)
government recognized or accredited NGO-sponsored entrepreneurship or livelihood
training programs;

h. at least one (1) responsible person must maintain cleanliness in the surroundings
and practice proper garbage disposal;

i, at least one (1) responsible person must plant trees in the surroundings; and

j. at least one (1) responsible person must assist, help or participate in bayanihan
projects in their respective barangay or municipality.

SEC. 8. Non-Compliance with Conditions. — The responsible person of a reported
qualified household-beneficiary who fails to comply with the conditions set forth in Section 7
shall at first be notified in writing, After four (4) months of non-compliance, the household-
beneficiary shall be subject to case management. If despite the case management, the
qualified household-beneficiary continues with non-compliance, the benefits under this Act
may be suspended

Should the qualified household-beneficiary so notified persist in not complying with the
conditions within a period of one (1) year, the conditional cash grant shalll be canceled

SEC. 9. Mode of Cash Transfer. - The conditional cash transfer shall be made by the
DSWD. The conditional cash grant shall be received by the grantee or any of the grantee’s
duly authorized representative on a bi-monthly basis through an authorized government
depository bank duly identified by the DSWD, using different appropriate payment modes,
including cash card, over-the-counter transaction, money remittance services, conduit rural
banks, and cooperatives.

SEC. 10. Periodic Assessment. - The amounts indicated in Section 6 shall be made
available to the qualified household-beneficiaries during the first two (2) years of the
implementation of this Act and reasonable adjustments may thereafter be made by the
President, if necessary, upon recommendation by the DSWD, after taking into account the
rates of inflation and similar economic indicators.

The grant rates may be adjusted by the DSWD if warranted by the changes in the socio-
economic conditions existing at the time. The DSWD shall ensure that the grant rates are
sufficient to make a positive impact on the health, nutrition and education of grantees:
provided, that DSWD shall ensure that the grant will not serve as disincentive for family
members to work and improve their economic conditions.

SEC. 11, Loan Assistance. — Responsible persons who successfully completed the
entrepreneurship or livelihood programs required under Section 7 may be given loan
assistance as their initial capital by the appropriate government agency that will implement
relevant programs pursuant to Section 16 of this Act

SEC. 12, Five-Year Maximum Limit. - Each qualified household-beneficiary shall receive
the conditional cash grant for a maximum period of five (5) years

SEC. 13. Lead Agency, - The DSWD shall serve as the central planning, coordinating,
implementing and monitoring body of the program.
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In the implementation of this Act, the Department shall have the following functions:
a. select and use an appropriate, effective and cost efficient method devised for
the purpose of identifying and selecting qualified household-beneficiaries;

b. identify and select the target household-beneficiaries on the basis of a
uniform, objective and transparent selection process;

¢. conduct seminar-workshops and training programs in order to ensure
qualified household-beneficiary awareness of the conditions and other actions
pertinent to this Act;

d. coordinate with different national and local agencies, including organizations
from the private sector to ensure full implementation of statutory commitments
herein;

e. set up monitoring and evaluation systems and methodologies on compliance
of conditions, implementation of operations, and output and impact
assessments. It shall also coordinate with the Advisory and Monitoring
committees at the national, regional and municipal levels to verify compliance
once a month using the monitoring and evaluation systems designed for the
purpose;

f. recommend to the President measures and policies for the responsive
delivery of the commitments under this Act;

g. coordinate with different national and local agencies to maintain and update
objective poverty maps which will be checked and cross-checked periodically
for duplications and inaccurate or erroneous information;

h. formulate implementing rules and guidelines for the enforcement of this Act;

i. submit an annual report to Congress including, but not limited to, all aspects
of its operations, financial status and other relevant data; and

j. perform such other functions as may be necessary or incidental to the proper
implementation of the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 14. Advisory Council. — An Advisory Council shall be created at the municipal,
regional and national levels to be headed by the DSWD and may be composed of
representatives from the Department of Education, Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority, Department of Health, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation,
Department of Interior and Local Govemment, Department of Trade and Industry,
Department of Labor and Employment, National Anti-Poverty Commission, the Presidential
Commission for the Urban Poor, the local government unit concerned, and accredited
NGOs, as members.

The Advisory Council is principally tasked to monitor and assess actions and
activities relative to the implementation of the program. It shall also serve as a Grievance
Committee tasked to accept complaints and grievances that may arise within their respective
territorial jurisdictions, conduct investigation in specific cases and dispose cases filed in
connection thereto, using the Grievance Redress System

SEC. 16. Independent Monitoring Committee. - An Independent Monitoring Committee at
the municipal, regional and national level composed of representatives from the private
sector and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) shall be created,

The Independent Monitoring Committee is principally tasked to complement the
monitoring activities of the DSWD and provide feedback thereto for proper action. It shall
submit a report on the results of its monitoring activities relative to the implementation of the
program to the Advisory Council.

SEC. 16. Convergence of Programs and Services. - To ensure that the targeted
household-beneficiaries remain non-poor after the prescribed maximum limit for receipt of
the conditional cash grant, multi-stakeholder and inter-agency convergence of programs and
services shall be implemented. This shall focus on the enhancement of operational efficiency
and strengthening of inter-agency partnerships for greater impact and sustainability of
outcomes.


SEC. 17. Appropriations. — The amount necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act
shall be charged against those authorized in the current and subsequent General
Appropriations Acts.

The appropriation shall continue until the program has covered sixty percent (60%) of
the total number of extremely poor families in the Philippines, as may be determined by the
Philippine Statistics Authority at the time of the enactment of this Act. The appropriation
shall be included in the annual appropriation of the DSWD.

SEC. 18, Penalty. — Any person, public or private, whether or not acting in conspiracy with
public officials, who, by act or omission, inserts or allows the insertion of data or false
information, or who diverts from what ought to be contained in the registry, with the view of
altering the fact, or aiding in the grant of the money to persons other than the qualified
household-beneficiaries, shall be penalized with imprisonment of not less than one (1)
month but not more than six (6) months, or a fine of not less than Ten thousand Pesos
(P10,000.00) but not more than Twenty thousand Pesos (P20,000.00), or both imprisonment
and fine, at the discretion of the court.

Administrative sanctions shall be imposed without prejudice to prosecution in the
proper courts.

SEC. 19. Joint Congressional Oversight Committee. — Upon the effectivity of this Act, a
congressional oversight committee, hereafter to be referred to as the 4Ps Committee, is
hereby constituted. The 4Ps Committee shall be composed of fourteen (14) members with
the chairpersons of the Committee on Poverty Alleviation of the House of Representatives,
and the Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development of the Senate and six
(6) additional members from each House, to be designated by the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, and the Senate President, respectively. This Committee is principally
tasked to set the overall framework to monitor and ensure the proper implementation of this
Act. It will likewise determine inherent weaknesses in the law and recommend necessary
remedial legislation or executive measures.

SEC. 20, Implementing Rules and Regulations. ~ Within six (6) months from the effectivity
of this Act, the Secretary of Social Welfare and Development shall, in coordination with
appropriate government departments and agencies, with the participation of the local
government units, promulgate the necessary rules and regulations to carry out the provisions
Of this Act.

SEC. 21. Separability Clause. — If any provision or part of this Act is held unconstitutional or
invalid, the remaining parts or provisions not affected shall remain in full force and effect.

SEC. 22. Repealing Clause. ~ Any law, presidential decree or issuance, executive order,
letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation contrary to or inconsistent with the
provisions of this Act, is hereby repealed, modified, or amended accordingly

SEC. 23. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the
Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation

Approved,