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STION UAT

Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIV:
Quezon City, Metro Manila

TY $5 VICE

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL No. 2688

Introduced by: Representative Shernee A. Tan

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Conditional Cash Tranfers (CCTs) was first launched in Brazil
under the Program Bolsa Escol-Bolsa Familia. The program was later
adopted in Mexico under Progresa (Oportunidades). The objectives of the
program as follows:

* Break the general cycle of poverty through short term poverty relief
and investments in human capital to address long term pover'

* Addresses low demand for education and preventive health care;
and

* Attempted to offer an alternative to out of pocket payments in
health care

As the CCTs are increasingly perceived as an effective tool for poverty
alleviation, it is now found around a wide range of countries.

In the Philippines, the CCT was implemented in 2006 during the
administration of President Gloia Macapage
Pamilyang Pilipino Program or (4Ps). It was also continued during the
administration of President Benigno $. Aquino III.

The 4Ps, which is a development program designed to promote
investment in human capital among poor families with 0-14 years old
children, intends to address the following:

a) Reducing extreme poverty and hunger

b) Achieving universal primary education

c) Reducing child mortality

d) Improving maternal health

¢) Promoting gender equality and empowering women

Since the program was implemented only by virtue of an executive
fiat, there is a possibility that future administrations may not pursue
this pro-poor program to the detriment of the poor beneficiaries.


This bill therefore seeks to institutionalize the Pantawid Pamilyang
Pilipino Program more popularly known as 4Ps.

It is worthy to mention that the implementation of 4Ps has gained
wide support from all sectors of society in the Philippines as can be
gleaned from the numerous bills filed in the House of Representatives
during the 16" Congress. Even all the Presidential candidates during the
2016 National Elections had expressed their support to continue this
poverty alleviation program.

In view of the foregoing reasons, the approval of this bill is
earnestly sought.

Kusug Tausug Partylist


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

2688

HOUSE BILL No. __*

Introduced by: Representative Shernee A. Tan

AN ACT
INSTITUTIONALIZING THE PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO
PROGRAM (4Ps) TO REDUCE POVERTY AND PROMOTE HUMAN
CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND APPROPRIATING 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 of 2016”.

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is hereby declared the policy of
the State to recognize the need to strengthen the solidarity of the family
and actively promote its total development. Toward this end, the State
shall ensure to free the people from poverty through policies that will
provide adequate social service, and an improved quality of life for all by
way of achieving the following:

(a) Provide a
needs;

(b) Break the intergenerational cy
in human capital and improved deliver
particularly education, health and nutrition;

(c) Promote gender equality and empowerment of women;

(d) Achieve universal primary education;

(§ Reduce child mortality; and

(g) Improve maternal health.

tance to the poor to alleviate their immediate

of poverty through investment
asic services to the poor,

SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. - As used in this Act, the following
terms shall mean:

(a) 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;

3


(b) Compliance Verification refers to the checking and monitoring
to ensure that the qualified household-beneficiaries comply with
conditions for entitlement set forth by the program;

(c) Conditional Cash Grant refers to the amount being received
by the qualified household-beneficiaries who comply with 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 concerns related to the
implementation of the Program;

(g) Health Facility refers to a barangay health station, rural
health unit or primary hospital;

(h) Health Service Providers refer to barangay health workers,
barangay nutrition scholars and midwives;

(\) 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;


(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 adopted by
the national government agencies and being 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 every three (3)

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).

This 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 houschold-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 grant for educational
expens'

(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;

(c) 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
hool who has maintained passing grades in all subjects after the
second year of availment of the program.

SEC. 7. Conditions for Entitlement. — All qualified houschold-
aries shall comply with the following conditions as a requirement
ntinued program eligibility:



(a) Children 0 to 5 years old must receive regular preventive health
check-ups and vaccinations;

(b) Children 6 to below 14 years old must avail of de-worming pills
at least twice a year;

(c) Children 3 to 5 years old must attend day care or pre-school
At least eighty-five percent (85%) of the time;

(d) Children must attend elementary or high school clas:
eighty-five percent (85%] of the time;

(e) Pregnant women must get a pre- and post natal care and be
attended by a skilled or trained health care professional during childbirth
in a health facility;

(f) At least one 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 responsible person must join and complete at least
two (2) government recognized or accredited + NGO-sponsored
entreprencurship or livelihood training programs;

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

(i) At least one responsible person must plant trees in their

surroundings; and

(k) At least one responsible person must assist, help or participate

in bayanihan projects in their respective barangay or municipality;

class

at least

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 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
their failure to comply as directed, the conditional cash grant shall be
canceled after one year of non-compliance.

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 card, over-the-counter, 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 conditionalities: 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. — Fach 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.

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;

(c] 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;

(c) 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 implementation 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 enforcement of the statutory commitments under 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 Government, 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. They
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. 15. 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,
takeholder 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
impact and sustainability of outcomes.



SEC. 17. Joint Congressional Oversight Committee. - Upon the
effectivity of this Act, a congressional oversight committee, hereafter
referred to as the 4Ps Committee, is hereby constituted. The 4Ps
Committee shall be composed of fourteen (14) members with the
chairmen 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 guidelines and 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. 18. Appropriations. “The Secretary of Social Welfare and
Development shall, except for programs in Section 16, include in the
DSWD's program for the implementation of this Act, the initial funding of
which shall be charged against the current year’s appropriations of the
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). Thereafter, the amount
equivalent to not less than three percent (3%) of approved budget in the
General Appropriations Act is hereby automatically appropriated to cover
approximately sixty percent (60%) of the total number of extremely poor
in the Philippines, as may be determined by the Philippine Statistics
Authority at the time of the enactment of this Act.

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. 19. Penalty. - Any person, public or private, whether 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 found 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 without prejudice to prosecution
in the proper courts,


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, shall promulgate the necessary rules and regulations to carry out
the prov ns 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) da
after its publication in the Official Gazette or in a national newspaper of
general circulation.

Approved,