The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) disclosed Saturday that between 400,000 and 500,000 validated beneficiaries remain on the waiting list for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

“We have around 400,000 to 500,000 on the waiting list. These are validated 4Ps beneficiaries,” DSWD Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said in a DZBB interview.

“Our annual target is around 4.4 million households. Right now, we have more than 2.8 million. We are enrolling additional beneficiaries based on the validated waiting list,” she added.

Meanwhile, the national government has extended the maximum seven-year participation period for 4Ps beneficiaries through Executive Order 120, signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month.

Dumlao noted that the President emphasized the need to strengthen case management to ensure that 4Ps beneficiaries reach Level 3 before they exit the program.

7-year term

“Under the law, a program beneficiary may only remain in the program for seven years. But the President extended that because it was seen that a household beneficiary may have already spent seven years in the program but is still at Level 1 or Level 2,” the DSWD spokesperson said. 

The DSWD official stressed that by the end of the year, it will be determined whether beneficiaries will exit the program following the conduct of the Social Welfare and Development Indicators assessment by social workers in the second semester of 2026.