Duterte slams LP bets saying 4Ps won't continue if they don't win

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte expressed dismay over reports that the national and local candidates of the ruling Liberal Party have been telling the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pampamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) that the monthly cash grants will stop if they lose in the May 9 elections.

"Don't worry that 4Ps will stop. It will continue under a Duterte presidency," he told the crowd in Catanauan, Quezon during a sortie on Wednesday.

"Who are you to stop a program that benefits [for] underprivileged Filipinos," he added, stressing that the money comes from the government and not from politicians.

Duterte also told the crowd once again that he will add a sack of rice every month for each of the beneficiaries.  

During a campaign rally in Butuan City earlier in March, Duterte said he will get funds from the Sin Tax and the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to fund his expanded 4Ps program.

Duterte and his running mate Senator Alan Peter Cayetano also previously said that they will add a business element to the 4Ps to help beneficiaries eventually help themselves.

A centerpiece of the Aquino administration's anti-poverty efforts, 4Ps provides conditional cash grants to poor families for health, nutrition, and education of children. It started as the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

A survey by the  Social Weather Station (SWS) on Sunday said 80 percent of Pinoys will vote for a candidate who will push for the continuation of the 4Ps program. —Trisha Macas/JST, GMA News