VIEWPOINT
[PHOTO - ALABEL, Sarangani (January 12, 2012) – Governor Migs
Dominguez encourages responsible parenthood to the 268 family-beneficiaries of
local Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) project on its first sortie at barangay
Domolok Thursday, January 12. This project is patterned after the Pantawid
Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a poverty alleviation strategy that invests in
human capital to improve their living conditions by providing a cash grant of
P500 per month. For more news and updates, please visit the Province of Sarangani (Russell Delvo/SARANGANI INFORMATION
OFFICE)]
MANILA, FEBRUARY
2, 2012 (BULLETIN) A lawmaker Tuesday said the recent Social
Weather Stations (SWS) survey indicating increased hunger is proof that the
Aquino administration's Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program is a failure.
Based on the latest SWS survey conducted on December 3-7, the number of
Filipino families that claimed they experienced involuntary hunger increased to
4.5 million from 4.3 million last September.
The number of hungry families increased despite the government spending
P13,093,184,200 in cash grant to poor households as of December 2011 as part of
the CCT program.
With this development, Gabriela Women's Partylist Rep. Luz Ilagan said: "It
is high time for the Aquino administration to rethink its Conditional Cash
Transfer program and in its stead, implement a more sustainable poverty
alleviation program that will address the growing hunger and poverty among
Filipinos."
She, along with Minority Leader Danilo Suarez and Rep. Mitos Magsaysay,
called for an end to "too much politics and division" purportedly perpetuated by
the current administration in a bid to smokescreen the dismal economic
performance of the government.
Suarez and Magsaysay said the 3.7 growth in GDP, which is nearly just half of
the growth rate posted in 2010, is a glaring indication that President Benigno
S. Aquino III failed to meet the expectations of the public.
In a statement, Magsaysay said that with the Aquino government too
pre-occupied with its bid to gain political mileage by persecuting known foes,
there is little chance the country's economic position will improve.
"It is very alarming, considering that the growth rate did not just fall but
dropped to half of what the country has posted in 2011. It would be tall order
for the government's economic team to catch up and regain the losses but with
all this political turmoil besetting the Philippines," she said.
Magsaysay said that while the government is at liberty to go after those whom
it believes to have committed wrongdoings against the state, there should be a
balanced approach in handling the affairs of the country.
"The President should look at the bigger picture and not simply be obsessed
over one aspect. As a result of his nearsightedness, prices of gasoline and
electricity, which is a major concern for both businesses and regular consumers
have increased unchecked," the opposition stalwart added.
Ilagan said poverty and hunger surveys should help guide Malacañang and the
DSWD in the creation of its proposed budget for 2013. The budget call for 2013
has officially commenced and various departments are expected to submit their
proposal for the 2013 budget in the first quarter of this year.
The party-list solon further said that it has been four years since the CCT
was first implemented under the Arroyo administration, yet this has not resulted
in any significant improvement in the lives of poor Filipino families.
"The undeniable fact remains that more Filipinos are poor. The Aquino
government should cut if not totally forego spending for the CCT. Let us stop
wasting billions in taxpayers' money for a failed anti-poverty program. Instead,
this should be realigned to the delivery of direct social services such as
health, housing and education," she said.
According to her, in 2009, the National Statistical Coordination Board said
that 26.5 million Filipinos survive on less than P41 per day.
She noted that this data further increased to 27.6M in 2010. Late last year,
methodologies in the computation of the poverty rate were conveniently adjusted
thus the poverty rate was pegged at 26.5 percent which translates to 23.1
million poor Filipinos.
BLOGGER
VIEWPOINT
Is Mr. Aquino's Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) the solution
to poverty?
Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) at the directives of World Bank,
International Monetary Bank (IMF) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) is the Aquino
administration's flagship program to alleviate poverty.
CCT is also the Arroyo's anti-poverty program that the present administration
decided to extend and expand.
CCT has an outlay of P21.2 billion in the 2011 national budget. The Program
involves the distribution of cash grants under the so-called Pantawid Pamilyang
Pilipino Program or 4Ps, to poor families under certain conditionality such as:
1.Children 6 to 14 years old must be enrolled in school and attend at least
85 percent of the classes.
2.Pregnant women must receive prenatal and postnatal care.
3.Parents must attend Family Development Sessions.
4.Children under 5 years of age must receive regular preventive health
checkups and vaccinations.
5.Children in elementary schools must receive deworming treatment at least
twice a year.
Through giving cash aid the Aquino administration hopes that the curse of
poverty would magically go away.
Bulatlat's Salungguhit on CCT
As I have said, CCT was started in Arroyo's administration it was piloted in
a few thousand households in the last half of 2007. Formal program
implementation started in 2008 and as of September 2010, the program has
reportedly reached 900,000 families and disbursed P12-15 billion.
The Aquino administration targets to reach 2.3 million households in 2011 and
up to four million beneficiaries by 2016. To achieve this, the 4Ps budget has
been increased from PhP10 billion in 2010 to PhP29.2 billion for 2011, of which
PhP21.2 billion is for the implementation of CCT.
At the estimated 94 million population today, more than ¼ of the population
or more than 24 million Filipinos live in poverty, is Mr. Aquino's Conditional
Cash Transfer (CCT) the solution to poverty?
My clear-cut answer is NO! Why?
First, to beneficiary families who receives P500.00 a month/P6, 000
per year per household and additional P300.00 a month/P3, 000.00 per child a
year which, up to a maximum of 3 children per household, for the 10-month school
duration a year, it is extremely a relief! It is vital to the poor families.
But it will only grant temporary income relief. It is just a band-aid
solution!
And it is a dole out system!
Reading an IBON article, it said that CCT is pursued alongside two other
programs in the time of the Arroyo's administration — the Kapitbisig Laban sa
Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services
(Kalahi-CIDSS), that begun in 2002 and claimed 1.1 million beneficiaries in
4,229 barangays, and the Self-Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (SEA-K) that
claims 34,502 beneficiary families.
The benefits from these programs, IBON found out, are very inadequate.
Second, CCT is debt-funded. According to IBON, CCT has incurred $805
million (P35 billion) in foreign debt. It will incur more if pursued until 2016.
This is again an increased indebtedness! And who will pay for this debt? This is
again imposed on the taxpayers.
Third, CCT breeds corruption. I remember that Pambansang Lakas ng
Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pa-malakaya), a fisher folk alliance urged
the House Oversight Committee to investigate allegations that the CCT fund
intended for beneficiaries were gone to corruption.
According to Pamalakaya, enlisted recipients from the province of Sorsogon
told them that when the beneficiaries went to the Regional Office of the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to collect the funds, they
found out that their names were scratched from the payroll list and those who
were still in the list, only received 30 percent of what they supposed to
receive from the program.
Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya chairman said that they don't believe that what
happened in Sorsogon is an isolated case. He said further that this grand
corruption of CCT funds is an across-the-nation activity that shows the
bankruptcy of the program. The running syndicates embedded in DSWD and other
government offices are exploiting the extreme poverty and dispossession of the
Filipino people for their own corruption racket. This is an indication that the
bulk of the P 21-B CCT project will go the pockets of corrupt state officials.
Fourth, CCT is the same unsuccessful neoliberal socio-economic policy
framework employed by previous regimes that was imposed on the Philippines by
the US.
And lastly, CCT is not the solution to poverty. Instead of doling out,
the Aquino administration should generate jobs and livelihood opportunities,
develop economy to serve domestic needs, bring about genuine land reform and
national industrialization and break up with neoliberal policies that entrenched
the causes of poverty and the under development of the Philippines.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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