Sen. Alan Peter S. Cayetano (Voltaire F. Domingo / Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Alan Peter Cayetano is pushing for the direct distribution of cash assistance to poor families and local government units (LGUs).
Under the 2023 national budget, the allocation for cash aid is around P200 billion for poor families.
Directly providing aid to about 15 million poor households will save the government some P50 million, according to Cayetano, as there will be no administrative costs and operating expenses.
“I-deretso sa LGU. I-deretso sa pamilya. Bakit hindi nalang natin ibigay deretso na P10,000 bawat pamilya sa 15 million families? May matitipid ka pang P50 million.
(Give the aid directly to LGUS or families. Why don’t we just give P10,000 to each of the 15 million families? We can save P50 million.)
“So meron ka pang natira para du’n sa iba. Wouldn’t that just be a simpler, mas simpleng paraan na dumeretso sa tao ang pera,” he proposed during the plenary session on Wednesday.
(You still have some funds left for others. Wouldn’t that just be a more straightforward way to distribute the money to the people.)
However, Senator Sonny Angara, Senate committee on finance chairperson, countered that government programs where cash aid is being handed out are “well-established.”
The programs include the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and the social pension for indigent senior citizens.
“Very powerful logic iyong logic po ng ating kasamahan at very convincing, very powerful, but unfortunately these are well-established programs,” Angara said.
(The logic of our colleague is compelling, but unfortunately, these are well-established programs.)
“I guess it’s not easy to put all of these things back in the box yet and I’m not sure if the recipient would be the same kasi iba-iba po yung puntos ng mga programang ito (because these programs have different targets),” he added.
Moreover, Cayetano proposed to digitize the aid program and urged concerned departments to create mobile applications for it.
During the plenary’s nine-hour session, the Senate approved the 2023 budgets of the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of Finance, and the National Economic and Development Authority.
(with Trisha Manalaysay, INQUIRER.net trainee