More 4Ps beneficiaries now willing to get vaccinated vs. COVID-19 —DSWD

More 4Ps beneficiaries are now willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to the period before the government's vaccination program started in March, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Tuesday.

In a radio interview, DSWD Assistant Secretary Glenda Relova said this was partly due to the information campaign launched by the department regarding the vaccines.

“Prior to our vaccination program, meron talaga hesitancy and fears ang ating mga benepisyaro. Ito ay napag-alaman namin based on the survey namin bago tayo magkaroon ng bakuna,” she said.

(There was really vaccine hesitancy and fears among our 4Ps beneficiaries prior to our vaccination program. We learned of this through the survey we conducted before we started with the vaccination in the country.)

4Ps stands for Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a government measure that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children.

According to Relova, the DSWD, together with the Department of Health (DOH), conducted roundtable discussions and town hall meetings to educate the recipients on the benefits of getting inoculated.

“So ‘yung aming mga information and campaign materials regarding the vaccination program, sinagot ang kanilang mga fears, ang kanilang mga hesitations at currently, na-dispel na ito. They are very much willing na ibigay ang kanilang informed consent para sila ay mabakunahan,” Relova said.

(Our information and campaign materials regarding the vaccination program have answered their fears and hesitancy. They are now very much willing to provide their informed consent to get vaccinated.)

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) spokesman Jonathan Malaya on Monday said only 12% of 4Ps households or around 526,000 individuals received their COVID-19 jabs.

There are at least 4.3 million registered households under the conditional cash transfer program.

Due to this, the local government units have sought the DILG's help to “disincentivize” those who are still unvaccinated in hopes to boost the vaccination drive in their respective communities.

Relova, however, emphasized that there is no condition stated in Republic Act 11310 or the “4Ps Law” that recipients need to be vaccinated to get their subsidy. She said they are still waiting for the proposal of DILG regarding this matter.

“Kami naman sa DSWD, kung ano lang ang minamandato ng ating batas, ayun lang din ang aming ini-implement (We in the DSWD would just follow what's in the law),” Relova said.

So far, Relova said that the agency has not yet received any complaints from the 4Ps recipients regarding the “no vaccine, no subsidy” scheme.

DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said his department's proposal does not mean those unvaccinated will not be given the cash assistance.

“'Di naman natin sasabihin na no ayuda. Baka puwedeng magpa-vaccine ka tapos bigay namin 'yung ayuda sa 'yo kaagad. Gano'n lang. 'Di naman 'yung talagang in total na no vaccine no ayuda,” Año said Monday night.

(We are not saying there will be no cash assistance. Maybe you can first have the vaccine, then we will give you the cash assistance immediately. That's how it will be. We are not saying that there will totally be no cash assistance without the vaccine.) —KBK, GMA News