The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Division Chief Marie Grace Ponce of the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) Social Marketing Division said one of the conditions that 4Ps households must meet is the enrollment and school attendance of children beneficiaries aged 3 to 18.

Ponce said the DSWD continues to promote the importance of education among the beneficiaries of the (4Ps) as its small contribution for the prevention of child labor in the country.

Quezon City Representative Marvin Rillo recently cited the important role of the 4Ps education grants in keeping children in school that contributed to the 26 percent drop in the number of child laborers in the Philippines in 2023 as reported by the  Philippine Statistics Authority.

Under the 4Ps program, families receive monthly grants of P300 to P700 per child for educational expenses. Each beneficiary also receives P750 for health and nutrition, and P600 rice subsidies.

According to Ponce, part of the program’s case management is identifying and resolving the challenges of its beneficiaries, including the decrease in school attendance of the monitored children.

Launched in 2008 and institutionalized by Republic Act 11310 in 2019, the 4Ps is the country’s national poverty reduction strategy and human capital investment program that provides conditional cash transfer to poor households for a maximum period of seven years to improve their children’s health, nutrition and education.