House Minority Leader Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan has welcomed the approval of 5,703 new regular positions for frontline workers of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), saying the move will provide them with greater job security and strengthen the implementation of the country’s flagship anti-poverty initiative.
“We have been pushing for the regularization of 4Ps frontliners, so we are very pleased with this latest staffing action,” Libanan, a 4Ps party-list representative, said in a statement.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved the 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.
“For years, the 4Ps has relied heavily on temporary contract-of-service and job-order workers,” Libanan pointed out.
He said the regularization of these personnel would help improve the program’s operations while giving its frontliners 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 also 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.