Aquino aide calls for survey of cash dole recipients

AP PHOTO/AARON FAVILA

MANILA, Philippines—Claiming the poorest of the poor were left out of regular surveys on poverty, an aide to President Benigno Aquino on Saturday said the country’s polling companies should do a survey among beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer program to determine if it has improved the lives of the poor.

Abigail Valte, a spokesperson for Aquino, made the statement when asked to comment on the continuing high levels of self-rated poverty and self-rated hunger two years into the Aquino administration and despite the distribution of billions of pesos under the dole  program.

“If you look at the sampling of the surveys, they do not say whether those being polled are beneficiaries of the CCT,” Valte said over state-run dzRB. “If you want to see the effects of the CCT, we have to interview the beneficiaries of the CCT and not just base it on sample sizes of 1,200.”

The CCT is a priority program of the Aquino administration. It aims to benefit more than three million families by the end of 2012.

Under the CCT, families are given cash in exchange for children being sent to school and other conditions to ensure the health of family members.