Lives Behind the Numbers: Lived Struggles of 4Ps Beneficiaries in Accessing Higher Education

Jefferson G. Dela Cruz
Graduate Student, Master of Community Development
College of Social Work and Community Development
University of the Philippines Diliman

2025

Full-Length Peer-Reviewed Article

This qualitative case study examines why many senior high school graduates from Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) households do not access benefits under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTEA), notably the Free Higher Education (FHE)1 and the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES).2 Drawing on semi-structured interviews with four 4Ps senior high school graduates and their mothers in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, complemented by key informant interviews and documentary review, the study identifies how household economic precarity, limited social and cultural capital, geographically concentrated and competitive higher education supply, and constrained UAQTEA funding interact to limit higher education access. Findings suggest these factors jointly reduce the likelihood
that 4Ps senior high school graduates will enter and complete higher education. The paper recommends targeted transition supports, enhanced information on tertiary pathways within Family Development Sessions (FDS), pilot quota measures for 4Ps graduates paired with bridging supports, and a multi- year plan to raise education spending toward the 4–6 percent of GDP benchmark.

Higher education access; Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps); Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTEA); education inequality; political economy of education.

Dela Cruz, Jefferson G. 2025. “Lives Behind the Numbers: Lived Struggles of 4Ps Beneficiaries in Accessing Higher Education.” Philippine Journal of Public Policy: Interdisciplinary Development Perspectives 2025: 1-25.