4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan on Sunday called on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to include funding for extra cash grants in the 2025 general appropriations bill for pregnant and lactating mothers.
He said he sees the Philippines losing fewer mothers and newborns as a result of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s decision to give supplemental cash assistance to pregnant and lactating women under the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
“The additional targeted cash aid ordered by Malacañang will go a long way in improving the health and well-being of extremely vulnerable Filipino mothers and their newborns,” he said.
“Right now, we are losing six to seven Filipino women every day, mostly from poor households, on account of complications from pregnancy or childbirth,” he added.
Libanan is a member of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council that provides policy advice to the President on vital issues affecting the country’s socioeconomic development.
“We are also losing 14 newborns per 1,000 live births due to premature birth complications, congenital anomalies and infections,” he said.
The President ordered the add-on cash transfers to mothers, particularly within the first 1,000 days of their newborns, in a recent sectoral meeting, according to the Presidential Communications Office. “The fresh cash aid will give more meaning and substance to the 4Ps as the government’s flagship human capital and social development program,” Libanan said.
hilippines achieve key 2030 global social development goals set by the United Nations.
The UN aims to reduce the global maternal mortality rate to less than 70 per 100,000 live births, and lower the newborn (under a month old) mortality rate to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births.
The 4Ps has an allocation of P106.3 billion in the 2024 General Appropriations Act.