The Department of Social Welfare and Development has terminated its online registration for its educational assistance program for indigent students after the number of applicants has already reached 2 million.
DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo said the department has already distributed some P800 million of more than 50 percent of its P1.5 billion budget for the program.
“The application for the educational assistance is now closed,” Tulfo said in a radio interview on Saturday.
“We can no longer be able to accommodate beyond the two million applicants as we are only looking at a budget of P1.5 billion,” he added.
Tulfo said he will discuss with Speaker Martin Romualdez for a possible arrangement with district lawmakers to cover the educational assistance of those who failed to make the cut for the online registration.
“Next week we will talk with Congress under the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez so our lawmakers can pick up the fund deficiency per district. We will jointly fund the assistance for those who were not able to apply online. The DSWD and Congress will discuss ways to give this educational assistance,” he said.
The last payout of educational assistance, Tulfo said, will be “two Saturdays from now” or until Sept. 24.
Under the program, up to three students per indigent family can receive a cash aid worth P1,000 for elementary students, P2,000 for high school students, P3,000 for senior high school students, and P4,000 for tertiary students.
Meanwhile, during last week’s budget hearing, Rep. Elizaldy Co, chair of the House appropriations committee, said the increase in the budget of DSWD’s flagship assistance program next year will help lift the country’s poorest of the poor out of poverty, malnutrition, and lack of opportunity and education.
Co thanked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for the 7.3-percent 4Ps’ budget increase from P107.7 billion that will have served 4.37 million households this year to P115.6 billion to reach 4.4 million households next year.
He said DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) addresses both the immediate need for social assistance and the strategic goal to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.