DSWD’s lead role in social protection enhanced through Pag-Abot program

Sustainable growth that brings about prosperity for all Filipinos — with no one left behind — is the strategic vision that underpins the socio-economic development programs of the national government. Since the launching of AmBisyon Natin long-term development program in 2015 during the administration of the late President Benigno S. Aquino III, the successor administrations of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte and Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. have updated, fine-tuned and aligned these plans to ensure that all the salient objectives will be attained.

The government adopted a Medium-Term Fiscal Framework in 2022 to ensure that economic growth will be achieved through vigorous job creation and that poverty will be reduced. Among the key performance indicators is to achieve a single-digit poverty rate of 9 percent by 2028, at the back of achieving a real growth in gross domestic product (GDP) ranging from 6.5 to 8.0 percent annually between 2023 and 2028.

This is the overarching context for President Marcos’ issuance last Jan. 18 of Executive Order No. 2022 which institutionalized the Department Of Social Work and Development’s Pag-Abot Program. In issuing the order, the President declared that this shall serve as a platform “for an enhanced and unified delivery of services to vulnerable and disadvantaged children, individuals, and families in street situations, through provision of social safety nets and protection against risks brought about by poverty.”

Aside from transportation and relocation assistance packages, the Pag-Abot Program provides financial assistance, transitory shelter assistance, livelihood assistance, and employment assistance. Also included are psychosocial support, capability building of communities and local government units (LGUs), as well as community assistance.

Indeed, the institutionalization of the Pag-Abot Program has enhanced further the DSWD’s lead role in social protection, as President Marcos emphasized during the agency’s 73rd anniversary celebration earlier this month. Congress also affirmed this by approving a 25 percent increase in its annual budget, from ₱196.5 billion to ₱245 billion. This enabled the further augmentation of the budget for its flagship Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), for which ₱106 billion has been set aside. Another ₱49.8 billion has been provided for social pension of 4.085 million senior citizens, including centenarians. Other significant provisions are ₱27 billion for the Abot Kamay Ang Pagtulong (AKAP) Program to aid small laborers cope with rising prices of prime commodities — boosting what began as emergency aid at the height of the pandemic.

As a buffer against involuntary hunger, DSWD’s food catering operations has received an additional allocation of ₱4.1 billion for serving hot meals to some 2.027 million preschool children in communities, an initiative that supports a broader, multi-sectoral effort to end stunting among the youngest citizens of the land.

Finally, DSWD has strengthened its centralized hub for ensuring real-time situation reports and dispatching immediate assistance to afflicted communities in times of calamities and disasters.

Truly the DSWD has leveled up to ensure that the government’s mantle of social protection is extended to the farthest reaches of the archipelago, and delivered in a timely manner to as many who need support.