Poverty and food security remain top concern now faced by the new Marcos administration.
SENATE Minority Leader Franklin Drilon strongly opposed the “no vax, no subsidy” for 4.4 million beneficiaries of 4Ps or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, calling the proposal of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) “absolutely unacceptable, inhuman and callous”.
“It pains me to see a government that has shown nothing but a total callous disregard for the vulnerable sector of our society. It is yet another display of the government’s callousness,” Drilon said in a statement on Sunday.
“It only shows that the DILG is detached from reality and unaware of the real plight of the poor,” he added.
Drilon said the DILG should recall its proposal and called on the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the lead agency for the program, to protect the welfare of 4Ps beneficiaries.
“Let DSWD handle 4Ps. I call on the DSWD to defend the 4Ps beneficiaries against the ‘iron fist’ of DILG,” Drilon said.
Drilon, who is among the authors of Republic Act No. 11310 that institutionalized 4Ps, said that vaccination is not part of the conditions that beneficiaries must fulfill before receiving assistance.
The government’s flagship anti-poverty alleviation program has about 4.4 million Filipino families as beneficiaries since the time of the late President Benigno Aquino, who prioritized the program and increased its beneficiaries from about 700,000 in 210 to 4.4. million towards the end of his term, Drilon noted.
“It is contrary to the 4Ps law to withhold benefits or expel members who are not vaccinated. The DILG cannot just do that. That will be inhuman and totally insensitive,” Drilon said.
“We cannot assume that they are not vaccinated because they refused vaccines. They are not vaccinated because they have limited access to vaccines especially in the countryside or the roll out remains slow or the vaccines available are not what the people prefer,” Drilon said.
Drilon said that he agrees with Vice President Leni Robredo that the government should offer incentives to get people vaccinated rather than punish them.
The DSWD had also earlier maintained that COVID-19 vaccination is not among the conditions of 4Ps and vowed to oppose the proposal all out.
