A Trend Analysis on Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the Philippines

Implemented in 2007, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) otherwise known as the Conditional Cash Transfer Program (CCT) is a flagship economic and social reform of the Philippine government in order to reduce poverty particularly in the areas of education, healthcare, and the economy as a whole. The emergence of the pandemic interested the researchers in examining the implementation of such a program among its beneficiaries using trend analysis (2015-2021). From 17 regions in the Philippines, the researchers used cluster sampling and took the National Capital Regional (NCR) as an area of interest. The aggregated data from the National Capital Region (NCR) was chosen and used in this study.  Results of the study show an erratic trend on the number of 4Ps beneficiaries in the National Capital Region and when disaggregated by years, sex, provinces, and age group.  The NCR 2nd and 3rd Districts have the highest number of 4Ps beneficiaries representing NCR, with 30%-31%, while the lowest provinces which are 1st and 4th districts range from 19%-20%. In terms of sex, 93% are female beneficiaries while 7% are male ones from 2015-2018 only because starting 2019 to 2021, the proportion of both sexes became stable and stays with 90% for female grantees and 10% for male grantees. The age group with the least grantee is 18 years old and below, which equates to around 1-2% per year.  Further, a "high level" of health compliance among the child monitored 4Ps beneficiaries was observed in 2015 (90%), 2018 (91%), 2019 (93%), and 2020 (97%). It was then concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic had not affected the number of child and adult 4Ps beneficiaries. Interestingly, under 5 mortality rates have significantly reduced from 2015 to the 1st quarter of 2021