MANILA — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Thursday said budget utilization of some of their social programs were relatively low this year, citing some "challenges."

During a budget briefing, Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian told the House Committee on Appropriations that out of the P94.33-billion budget for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) this year, only around P30.74 billion has been obligated with a 13.46 percent disbursement rate as of July 31, 2023.

Gatchalian attributed this to the continuous reassessment of the 4P list, which they aim to finish by September this year.

"Admittedly this is a bit low because we are in the process of completing the validation and further assessment of the 4P beneficiaries who were tagged as non poor under the Listahanan 3 using our tool called the social welfare development indicators," Gatchalian told lawmakers.

"We hope to complete the assessment process by the end of September 2023 to determine the continued eligibility of the households, whether they should be retained as active beneficiaries or they should exit the program," he said.

"In terms of exit, this will facilitate the integration of new beneficiaries as replacements to reach the target of 4.4 million households," he added.

The DSWD chief emphasized that the low budget utilization was just temporary, as his agency fast-tracks the validation of existing households tagged non-poor in their Listahanan.

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Aside from the 4Ps, the Gatchalian also reported low utilization rates for protective services-Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations, Sustainable Livelihood Program and the Supplemental Feeding Program.

Obligation rate on the protective services stood at 40.88 percent so far this year, the official said.

"There has been a challenge in utilization of the capital outlay as the procurement for the construction of a building has resulted to the failure of bidding," he said.

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Gatchalian said the Sustainable Livelihood Program, on the other hand, has been reviewed. Over 191,000 households were targeted but only 5,435 have been served, representing 2.85 percent.

It has a 13.79 percent disbursement rate, he added.

"[It] is now implementing new guidelines which has resulted in an initial fiscal accomplishment of 2.85 percent," he said.

"Despite the ongoing challenges, 30.23 percent of the P5.896 billion allotment has been has already been obligated with a commitment to utilize the remaining funds within the year," he added.

With the new guidelines, Gatchalian said the balance of P2.695 billion allocated for the Sustainable Livelihood Program could be "fully utilized by the end of October."

"The DSWD wants to do continuous coordination with partners for fast tracking of approval of partnership agreements. It will also repurpose livelihood settlement grants for former rebels to Conflict Affected/Vulnerable Areas, among others," he said.

On the Supplemental Feeding Program which is set to begin in September 2023, Gatchalian said,"it is expected the obligation and disbursement of funds will increase as the funds are downloaded to LGUs, National Dairy Authority and Philippine Carabao Center."

For Protective Services for Individuals and Families in Difficult Circumstances as of July 31, 2023, he said 2.36 million have been served or 139.49 percent of the target. It has a disbursement rate of 36.63 percent.

For the Supplemental Feeding Program, there is a target of over 1.73 million school children who will be served when the school year begins.

An analysis of the agency's 2024 budget by the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) noted that the DSWD will have total obligations amounting to P209.93 billion in 2024, which is the same as total available appropriations since unused appropriations is still non-existent at this point.

Total available appropriations of P209.93 billion in 2024 is roughly 9.6 percent of the P2.183 trillion budget for social services, and lower by 4 percent than the 2023 level of P218.49 billion before the previous year’s total obligations was pared down to P199.51 billion due to unused appropriations of P18.98 billion.

"The DSWD will receive the sixth biggest appropriations among the departments," the department said.

"The OSEC, which has consistently received the highest funding, is allotted P207.37 billion (98.8%) of the total DSWD 2024 expenditure program. The second biggest allocation will go to the NCIP at P1.55 billion," it added.

CPBRD also said that the combined proposed budget for the Central Office (P18.97 billion) and the nationwide budget (P28.62 billion), constitutes 22.7 percent of the total DSWD budget in 2024.

It also noted that there are 7 locally-funded projects in 2024 versus 6 proposed the previous year.

DSWD's food stamp program will get P1.89 billion or 33.8 pecrent of the P5.60 billion total appropriations for Operations of all the Projects, locally-funded and foreign-assisted combined, in 2024.

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However, it noted that simple calculations would show that the P1.89 billion will only be enough for 105,000 families receiving P3,000 monthly food credits for 6 months instead of the initially advertised 300,000 target families for the first year.

The department added that 10 of the 17 programs registered reductions in their 2024 proposed appropriations compared to their 2023 values, with total budget cuts amounting to P1.29 billion.

Meantime, the Protective Program for Individuals & Families in especially the Difficult Circumstances Sub-Program will be brought down to P19.98 billion in 2024 or a 45.7 percent reduction from the P36.83 billion allocation in 2023.

The allocation for the Supplementary Feeding Sub-Program (SFP) is down 21.5 percent, from P5.20 billion to P4.08 billion.

The expenditure program for the 4Ps in 2024 amounts to P112.84 billion, 10 percent higher than the 2023 appropriations of P102.61 billion.

— RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News