For years, Lido Talapi-an knew only one way to keep his family moving forward: work harder, endure more and never give up on his children’s education.
In Barangay Agmanic, Santa Fe, Romblon, the father of eight works as a farmer, coconut climber and magtutuba—a coconut sap gatherer. His daily income has had to stretch across food, household expenses and the schooling needs of his large family.
There were days when what he earned was barely enough.
Yet amid the financial struggles, Lido held on to one dream: to see his children finish school and build better lives than the one he could provide for them.
When hard work met a helping hand
The Talapi-an family eventually became beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the government’s conditional cash transfer and human-capital investment program administered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
For Lido, however, government assistance was never a substitute for work.
He continued farming, climbing coconut trees and gathering coconut sap while using the additional support to help his family manage its needs and keep the children in school.
The family also received assistance through the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) and CARITAS, helping some of the children pursue higher education.
And slowly, the sacrifices began to produce results.
One of Lido’s children eventually became a teacher, while another became a police officer.
For a father who once worried about how he could send eight children to school, those achievements became more than career milestones—they became proof that years of sacrifice had not been wasted.
4Ps is designed to keep children in school
Lido’s experience reflects one of the central goals of 4Ps: helping poor families invest in the health, nutrition and education of their children while working toward breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
According to DSWD, qualified beneficiaries receive conditional cash grants and are required to comply with program conditions, including school enrollment and attendance requirements. Children covered by the education component are expected to maintain at least 85% attendance, while families also have health and Family Development Session responsibilities.
The program is therefore not simply structured around cash assistance. Its broader objective is to help families build human capital so that children have better opportunities to escape poverty later in life.
Recent developments show that the government continues to treat 4Ps as a major component of its anti-poverty strategy.
In May 2026, DSWD reported that more than 1.6 million Filipino families had already graduated from 4Ps after reaching self-sufficiency, with the program using the Social Welfare and Development Indicator to assess household progress.
DSWD has also continued expanding and validating beneficiaries. In March, the agency announced plans to register about 493,000 additional families from the 2026 Community-Based Monitoring System list, subject to validation and eligibility assessment.
A program that is changing with the times
The 4Ps program itself is also undergoing changes.
In July 2026, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Executive Order No. 120, allowing qualified 4Ps beneficiaries who remain at Level 1 or Level 2 under the Social Welfare and Development Indicator to continue receiving assistance beyond the original seven-year limit, subject to the conditions specified in the order.
The move reflects the government’s recognition that some vulnerable families may need additional support before they are ready to become self-sufficient.
But Lido Talapi-an’s story also illustrates another important point: assistance works alongside determination.
The 4Ps support helped his family stay focused on education, but Lido continued doing difficult and sometimes dangerous work to provide for his children.
His hands carried the marks of years spent in the fields and high in coconut trees.
His greatest reward, however, was not the coconuts he gathered or the crops he harvested.
It was watching his children build careers of their own.
The harvest that cannot be measured
For Lido, the most valuable harvest was never found on a coconut tree.
It was found in the future of his children.
His story is a reminder that poverty can make the road to success much harder—but with perseverance, education, family support and access to opportunities, a difficult beginning does not necessarily have to determine the ending.
The father who once struggled to figure out how to send eight children to school can now look back and see something far greater than the fruits of his labor.
He sees a teacher. He sees a police officer. And he sees children who were given the chance to build lives of their own.
For Lido, that is the harvest that matters most.
Not the coconuts. Not the crops. But the future he helped grow.
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