Urban poor group: Decline in self-rated hunger not due to state cash doleouts

MANILA, Philippines – A militant organization has dismissed as useless the Aquino government’s poverty alleviation programs that include a cash dole-out to the poorest households in the country.

Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national secretary general, said in a statement on Tuesday, that the decline in hunger incidence recently reported by the Social Weather Stations, even if true, should not be attributed to an effective implementation of the conditional cash transfer, a flagship program of President Aquino.

Under the CCT, the poorest families in the country receive a maximum of P1,400 per month on condition that their children will be sent to school and mothers regularly undergo medical checkup at health centers.

“(Assuming that) the survey results were good, and (the) sampling used was scientific, we doubt if P-Noy’s cash transfer program has a relevant effect on the decline in self-rated hunger (in the country),” Arellano said.

The SWS survey, conducted on June 3-6, showed that 15.1 percent of Filipino families went hungry in the past three months, a drastic decline from the 20.5 percent recorded in March.

Based on the latest survey, the hunger rate was the lowest since June 2007, when the number of the hungry was recorded at 14.7 percent.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda earlier attributed the overall decline in hunger incidence to the expansion of the CCT program.

Arellano noted that Luzon (Metro Manila excluded), where hunger incidence was reported to have decreased from 25 percent during the first quarter to 9.7 percent, was not a prioritized area for CCT implementation.

Visayas and Mindanao, for their part, recorded an increase in self-rated hunger, (from 14.7 percent to 21 percent in the Visayas, and from 16.7 percent to 21.7 percent in Mindanao), according to results of the survey.

This was despite fact that they have been identified as priority areas by the government, Arellano said.