Legarda bats for DSWD SLP budget augmentation

Three-term Senator Loren Legarda renewed her call for the increase of DSWD’s budget to ensure that more than 4 million families who are all active members of 4Ps will be able to access government programs like the Department’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), a livelihood program that supports 4Ps families to eventually gain financial independence. It offers two tracks—microenterprise development track, which provides a maximum of Php 15,000 seed capital fund; and the employment facilitation track, providing maximum of Php 5,000 per individual as assistance for processing of employment documents and to augment expenses for the first fifteen days of employment.

The three-term Senator noted that under the NEP, only Php 4.864 billion is allocated for SLP and with this proposed allocation, only around 8% of the 4 million families who are 4Ps beneficiaries will be accommodated under the microenterprise development track.

Legarda committed that she will actively push and introduce amendments to augment the DSWD budget and ensure that it is aligned with the pandemic recovery to help Filipinos cope with socio-economic challenges, reduce chronic poverty and promote human capital development in the country, especially amid the pandemic and the continuing climate crisis.