SENATOR Imee Marcos urged the Department of Social Welfare and Development to expand the coverage of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps in education.

Marcos said it is time to expand this field from high school to technical-vocational education to prepare and upskill the beneficiaries.

“These are the things that we have to look at in the IRR – still compliant with the law,” she said.

4Ps is a poverty reduction strategy that provides grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education.

Meanwhile, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian sought an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program saying that it has yet to achieve its objective of alleviating poverty among indigent households.

DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo said that impact evaluations found gains in the rollout of the 4Ps which include, among others, increased school enrollment and attendance among children of household-beneficiaries to comply with the conditions of the program.

DSWD data submitted to the Senate panel, however, showed that despite the distribution of P900 billion since 2007, only 97,000 graduated from poverty.

“It seems to me that despite the effectiveness on participation rates of students…the challenge of breaking the inter-generational poverty is not happening. Despite the students going to school, they’re still poor,” Gatchalian said.