DBM approves regularization of 5,703 4Ps workers

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has approved the regularization of 5,703 frontline workers of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a move expected to provide greater job security and strengthen the implementation of the country’s flagship anti-poverty initiative.

House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan said the DBM had approved new 4Ps positions in the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to institutionalize and expand the program’s workforce nationwide.

Most of the new positions will be assigned to 4Ps divisions across the DSWD’s 17 regional offices, according to the DBM.

Libanan said the 4Ps had relied heavily on temporary contract-of-service and job-order workers for years.

He said the regularization of these personnel would help improve the program’s operations while providing frontline workers with greater employment security.

“With the DBM’s latest staffing action, 4Ps personnel appointed to the regular positions will be entitled to security of tenure, social security protection and other benefits,” Libanan said.

The House minority leader had earlier warned that workers implementing the government’s anti-poverty program were themselves vulnerable to financial hardship because of the insecurity of their contractual employment.

The 4Ps provides conditional cash transfers to eligible poor households to help improve their living conditions and human development outcomes.

Under the government’s proposed 2027 National Expenditure Program, the 4Ps has an allocation of P99.1 billion to provide conditional cash transfers to 3.5 million household beneficiaries.