MANILA — More than 300,000 beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer program may also qualify for the food stamp program, based on the initial list, according to an official of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

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During Tuesday’s hearing of the House Committee on Social Services on bills seeking to strengthen the DSWD’s Food Stamp Program, some lawmakers questioned the possible duplication of benefits.

DSWD Undersecretary Eduardo Punay explained that there are beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps that remain unable to support their family’s food requirements. He attributes part of it to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The DSWD plans to conduct a thorough review of the conditional cash transfer program to assess its impact on beneficiaries.

“We cross-matched the list of our one million beneficiaries, initial list of beneficiaries for the food stamp program, with the list of 4Ps beneficiaries and we were able to find an overlap in beneficiaries. There are about more than 300,000 beneficiaries of 4Ps that will also be beneficiaries of food stamp program,” Punay said.

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“There will be duplication of benefits,” Bulacan 2nd District Representative Augustina Dominique Pancho pointed out.

“We consulted this with NEDA, because we are also alarmed ourselves that there are also 4Ps beneficiaries that are unable to support their food requirement. They are still food poor up to this point, even if they are receiving four years already of the 4Ps benefits. The NEDA secretary told us that this is a clear indicator that the 4Ps is not designed to address food security," Punay said.

"4Ps is designed to break the intergenerational cycle (of poverty) by investing in the education of children, health and nutrition of children. It does not address food insecurity of poor families. The P8,000 assistance or grants given to 4Ps, they use it for pamasahe, pagpapaaral ng mga bata, ng mga estudyante sa pamilya,” he added.

“But we’re giving them educational assistance. So for how many years ba hindi nag-improve ‘yung quality of life nila?” Pancho asked further.

“The pandemic had a big impact on the status of our poor Filipinos. Mayroon, nakita namin sa pag-aaral, almost nandoon na sila sa non-poor sa listahanan, pero vinalidate namin, because of the pandemic, bumalik sila sa poverty line,” Punay said.

Beneficiaries of the 4Ps program receive a monthly health and nutrition grant of P750 and monthly conditional education grant of P300 per child enrolled in day care or elementary, P500 per child in junior high school, and P700 per child in senior high school.

Beneficiaries of the Food Stamp Program, meanwhile, will receive P3,000 monthly food credits through an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card, powered by biometrics. Of this amount, P1,500 will be used for carbohydrates, P900 for protein, and P600 for good fats and vegetables.

The DSWD will pilot the Food Stamp Program to 3,000 households next month. They plan to scale up the number of beneficiaries yearly until the one million target food-poor households are reached by 2026.

“The food stamp program will enhance food security, improve the efficiency of social assistance delivery, an anti-inflation measure… The program aims to provide one meal per day. Food augmentation lang po. We do not intend to provide the entire three meals per day,” DSWD Assistant Secretary Baldr Bringas told the panel.

“We hear a lot of allegations that the cash assistance we provide our beneficiaries through the 4Ps program are not being used for its intended purpose… may allegations po, although wala pa namang proof, na ipinambibili raw ng alak, yosi, o pinangsusugal. Through this card, the cash amount is not withdrawable, it can only be used to purchase 50-30-20 (food allocation)," he added.

The house committee created a technical working group to harmonize and refine the bills on the food stamp program.