TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Children going to school barefoot and without school supplies. Stacks of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) cash cards in the hands of loan sharks. Mothers playing bingo or cards all day. Usage of the grants for unrelated needs. Dearth of farm labor specially in days following the 4Ps payout.
These are some of the images which recur whenever the 4Ps comes up in discussions in this province.
Luis Aoas, a Lutheran pastor and a leader of the Basao tribe, relates that before the advent of the 4Ps in the locality he had no trouble with farm labor as his tribesmates would even go to his house to ask him if he had work for them to do but these days, he has to go around the two Basao villages in the city to seek workers at times in vain.
He said that the situation is the same in their ancestral village in Tinglayan municipality where some of the rice paddies are left to fallow due to the shortage of people wanting to labor in the mud after the introduction of the 4Ps.
“Instead of treating the Pantawid grant as a supplement, generally speaking, it is now the main reason my tribesmates are losing their desire to work. The program is eroding the value of hard work and has created the taste for the easy life. I speak for my tribe,” Aoas said.
Seasonal laziness
Adolph Bravo, vice president of the Upper Chico River Irrigation System Tabuk Pinukpuk Federation of Irrigators’ Associations, alleges that the 4Ps is one of the three major reasons farm labor is no longer readily available all year round in the city, the other two being the diminution of farm worker ranks due to ageing and the lure of greener pasture among the youth.
“When they receive their grants, they wear their shoes and no longer want to step on the dikes. They do not feel the need to work until their 4Ps grant runs out,” Bravo said in Ilocano.
That demolishes the argument of 4Ps defenders that the claim of critics that the 4Ps induces indolence and dependence could not be true because no family could survive on the monthly pittance of P1,400.00 plus rice subsidy of P600.00.
The P500.00 is meant for the health needs of children and P300.00 for the educational needs of each child in school with a maximum of three children per family. The educational support for 10 months a year.
Marilyn Pecua, principal of the Dilag Integrated School (DIS) in barangay Dilag, this city, reconciles the seeming contradiction by explaining that the spell of idleness strikes the beneficiaries after they withdraw their grants and will last until they spend the entire amount.
Evangeline Licudo, leader of one of the seven kabisilyas or farm service provider teams in barangay Dilag, said that some 4Ps grantees no longer go to work when they hear of the payout.
She said that when called to go to work, the grantees would say they have something to do but the truth is they will idle.
“Instead of adding to the assistance, they depend on it until it’s consumed,” Licudo said in the vernacular.
Licudo said they also observe the same phenomenon in Cauayan City, Isabela where their kabisilya sometimes go to plant or harvest rice.
Irony
Pecua and Teacher III Gloria Salitan, also of the DIS, estimate that three to five of 10 4Ps families in the barangay do not use the educational support of their children as intended to the point that some 4Ps children come to school without school supplies and even barefoot.
“There are those engaged in gambling and drinking that’s why the needs of the children are not met. In the last quarter of the year, they run out of school supplies. To keep them from dropping out and affecting the school’s performance, we provide their school supplies,” Salitan said.
Pecua and Salitan informed that they have encountered cases where the pupils skip breakfast because the parents do not prepare their food and at times, their hunger force the children to cut classes to try to find something to eat usually wild guava fruits.
Loret Ligutan, PTA president and 4Ps beneficiary herself, said some 4Ps parents pinch the allowance or do not give any to their children which sometimes results in children leaving home purportedly to attend classes but ending somewhere else.
She said the most affected are 4Ps pupils who come from large families because the assistance is spread out to the rest of the brood defeating its intention.
Juliana Javillonar, principal of the Appas Elementary School (AES), estimates that 20 percent of the beneficiaries in Appas are not using the government aid as intended because while they send their children to school, they do not buy their needs compelling the faculty to solicit donations like used clothes to prevent the pupils from dropping out.
Javillonar also noted that it is the 4Ps parents who are delinquent in the payment of their obligations to the school.
“The purpose of the 4Ps which is to alleviate the condition of the poor is good but some of the beneficiaries do not value the benefit using it instead to sustain their vices. How much is the contribution of children in school compared to liquor?” Javillonar asked.
Javillonar related that there was an instance when they found from a 4Ps boy who was sleeping in class that his father had brought him along to the cockpit the night before.
Javillonar also reported that of the 23 pupils identified to be wasted and severely wasted and placed under the free feeding program of the school last school year, 13 came from 4Ps families. At the DIS, 15 of the 43 free feeding program beneficiaries last year were 4Ps.
Just like Pecua, Javillonar observed that since 2011 when the 4Ps was started in the city, it became difficult to call men to do odd jobs in the school specially right after the grant payouts.
Need for adjustments and closer monitoring
Both Aoas and retired Anglican Church prime bishop Renato Abibico although not fully comfortable with what they term as dole out nature of the program concede that it could help the poor provided the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) undertakes needed adjustments.
Abibico said that it is crucial that the implementers should teach the beneficiaries “to appreciate the fact they are being helped by the government and the appreciation is nothing unless they endeavour to help themselves.”
“The values we want to develop are not developed. The defenders of the program cannot simply deny that the program is causing laziness because we see it. When we talk of values, even those given free should be used wisely,” Abibico.
Both clergymen are convinced that close monitoring will go a long way in improving the implementation of the program.
Abibico said that for one, the instances of loan sharks taking advantage of 4Ps beneficiaries could be eliminated or minimized through continuous monitoring. He related that at one time the ATM queue he was in was held up for around an hour by a woman who was not running out of ATM cards.
Aoas feels that the practice of his tribesmates from Tinglayan buying things not directly related to the purpose of the assistance like utensils and even second hand television set could be checked if the DSWD applies closer supervision. He said he personally observed the practice because his 4Ps tribesmates from Tinglayan drop by his house when they come to withdraw their grants from the Land Bank of the Philippines in the city.
“What I am saying is in the case of many of my tribesmates, the program is not serving its purpose because of the absence of close monitoring. The Pantawid seems to be affected by the usual government attitude that once the money is released to the beneficiaries, the responsibility of the implementers ends,” Aoas said.
Impossible
Unfortunately, however, the DSWD severely lacks the manpower to ensure close monitoring.
SWO III Ritz Aquino, in-charge of Kalinga 4Ps, bared that worker to household ratio should be 1 is to 500 but since the DSWD does not have the funds to hire the needed number of workers, the nationwide ratio now is one worker is to 800 households and that in Kalinga, there are some cases where a worker handles as many as 1,000 households.
To underscore the gravity of the problem, Aquino said that the program requires workers to personally know the individual situation and problems of all the households in their coverage.
Based on his experience as Municipal Link for Balbalan from 2012 to 2014, licensed social worker Darwin Serion declared that the sheer number of the households not to count the numerous functions attendant to the job makes it impossible for Links to keep tab of the compliance of all the beneficiaries.
He said that this is unfortunate because the lack of monitoring is one of the worst weaknesses of the program.
“I was supposed to visit all households and accomplish a case study report for each family having the problems, my assessment and recommendations and to visit families who are non-compliant with the conditions. I could only visit 10 of the 650 beneficiary households in those two years because of other work,” Serion said.
He said that added to their heavy load is the validation of incident reports on offenses not included in the conditions of the 4Ps such as engaging in vices and pawning of cash cards.
Misuse widespread
Serion confirmed that the misuse of the 4Ps assistance is widespread saying as Municipal Link, he had come across cases of gambling, drinking and pawning of cash cards. He said he also noticed the reluctance of the beneficiaries to go to work after the pay out.
He said that based on the reports of the parent leaders as well as his own personal knowledge, at least 35 percent of the beneficiaries in Balbalan were not using the assistance properly.
Serion blames what he terms as loose nature of the program for the widespread abuse of the grants.
“Practically, anything goes in the program. For so long as a person is poor, he qualifies. Never mind the compliance. The conditions should be broadened to include prohibited acts and for these rules to be strictly implemented. Not engaging in vices is just an unwritten rule so the Links are limited to admonishing offenders. But it is common sense that when you are poor, you are not supposed to waste your money in vices,” Serion said.
DSWD side
Although she acknowledges that there are some beneficiaries who are not sincere and do not comprehend or wilfully misinterpret the purposes of the program, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer Digna Dalutag claims the great majority of the beneficiaries are being helped by the program and the situation is not as bad as the critics make it appear.
She said that the critics should understand that because of the manpower shortage as well as the many other responsibilities attendant to their positions, the Links cannot ensure close supervision of all their clients.
On the other hand, OIC-Regional Director Janet Armas admits that monitoring is a “constant challenge magnified by the geographic situation of the region” but as a solution, they are tapping national government agencies, local government units and civil society organizations as partners in implementing and monitoring of the 4Ps from the regional to the barangay level.
“Partner beneficiaries receive cash grants if they comply with program conditions as certified by the local health workers and DepEd personnel who take part in the monitoring of health center visits and school attendance of children,” Armas said
Armas did not comment on the manpower shortage affecting the program.
Regarding the alleged rampant misuse of grants, Armas said that during the family development sessions (FDS), grantees are constantly reminded their grants are for their children’s education and health needs. They are also taught financial literacy among other lessons.
She also said that grantees are aware that they could be removed from the program if they are proven to be involved in gambling, pawning cash cards or any other misdemeanour.
Armas denied that the program is inducing laziness among grantees claiming that the farmers among them are engaged in “other livelihood and work which may be outside farming.”
“It is not true that partner beneficiaries do not like to work or are reluctant to work for farm owners. Some partner beneficiaries are already working in their own farms to support their daily needs since they know that cash grants are not sufficient,” she said.
It is high time for the government or any group concerned about the prudent use of public funds and proper implementation of government programs to conduct an in-depth investigation to validate the allegations against the 4Ps as presently being implemented and to determine the program’s real impact on the beneficiaries and if these are commensurate with the expense.
Needless to say, the investigation should be carried out by a competent and independent entity. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.