Group seeks Congress probe on gov’t cash doles

LUCENA CITY, Philippines—The fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Monday urged Congress to investigate the controversial conditional cash transfer (CCT) program after the Commission on Audit (CoA) reported that even non-indigent folks received the monthly cash aid from the national government.

“The Senate President and the Speaker of the House are obliged to put this CCT program under thorough review and eventual withdrawal from the national scene. This national anti-poverty program is not only promoting the culture and mindset of mendicancy, it is also promoting an across-the-nation corruption and political patronage based on corrupt and syndicated practices,” Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap said in a statement sent to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Monday.

Touted as the government flagship poverty alleviation program, the CCT, also known as the “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program” (4Ps), is a state project that offers the poorest of the poor monthly doles of P500 for health and P300 for the education of every child below 14 years old, not exceeding three children per family, or a maximum of P1,400 a month per beneficiary family.

But Hicap noted that CoA, in its 2010 report, said some of the beneficiaries included people who owned hectares of land, cars, a six-door apartment, an Internet shop and a grains trading business.

“The CCT is a general failure. The government cannot eradicate poverty by simply giving some cash the way TV variety shows handle cash to struggling poor contestants,” he said.

The government should instead “pursue the fundamentals of eradicating poverty like free land distribution, decent paying jobs and job security to the people and … the all-out provisions for health and education,” he added.

But in the 4Ps Internet website, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman assured the public that the DSWD has already put in place stronger mechanisms to ensure the smooth implementation of the CCT after receiving the findings and recommendations of the CoA.

Soliman said the reported inclusion/exclusion errors in the identification of CCT beneficiaries were being addressed by the Pantawid Pamilya National Program Monitoring Office (NPMO) – Grievance Redress System (GRS).

Complaints desks have been set up during community assemblies while re-assessment and validation surveys were being done to correct errors in identifying the beneficiaries, the 4Ps social marketing unit said in a statement posted on the website.

The Department of Budget and Management has increased the allocation for DSWD’s social services by 43.57 percent to P48.9 billion from P34.3 in 2011 to accommodate the expansion of the CCT program.

Hicap noted that for 2012, DSWD’s appropriations for CCT would use up 80 percent of the agency’s budget for programs, while all other programs have to split the remaining 20 percent, or P9.914 billion, including assistance for victims of natural calamities.

He argued that instead of allocating 80 percent of the DSWD fund to such “ineffective anti-poverty program,” the government should rechannel the CCT funds to other meaningful and progressive undertakings such as job creation, production subsidies, education and health services.