Senator Risa Hontiveros seeks a joint congressional oversight committee to

review the necessity to continue implementing the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino

Program, often known as the 4Ps Law, a national initiative to mitigate poverty and
invest in human capital. It offers conditional cash transfers to low-income
households for a maximum of seven years, with the goal of enhancing their
education, health, and nutrition. The senator filed Senate Resolution 218, stating
that there is a "need to review and assess the program's implementation and develop
strategies to make it more responsive and effective in achieving its set goal of
breaking intergenerational poverty."

Hontiveros cited Social Welfare and Development Secretary Erwin Tulfo's

statement that approximately 850,000 households would be removed from the 4Ps
program, as well as Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez's report on 187,000
beneficiaries who were delisted for a variety of reasons, including households that
no longer have children, improved living conditions, noncompliance, opting out of
the program, and graduating from the program. The senator explained that even if
the household has graduated from the 4Ps program, the household beneficiaries who
are considered non-poor are susceptible and vulnerable to becoming poor again,
given current conditions and circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, other
diseases and natural disasters, increased poverty incidence, record-high inflation
rate, rising cost of living, high unemployment and underemployment, among others.
She mentioned calls to extend and boost the coverage of 4Ps households, eligible
beneficiaries, entitlement conditions, and cash transfer amounts. The senator also
stated that several laws, such as the Philippine Identification System Act and the
Community-Based Monitoring System Act, have direct implications for identifying 4Ps
household beneficiaries and delivering benefits. She then remarked that the 4Ps Law
mandated the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) to undertake an
impact assessment to determine the program's success, the veracity of the list of
home beneficiaries, and how it was implemented. The law requires the joint
congressional oversight committee to conduct a sunset review to evaluate the
effectiveness of Republic Act 11310, the program's success, as well as the agencies
tasked in implementing it in aid of legislation.