Cayetano mulls variant scheme of conditional cash transfer program

Senate Alan Cayetano. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Sen. Alan Cayetano mulls a second type of Conditional Cash Transfer, a microfinancing variant that would allow the likes of tricycle drivers and vendors to loan small amounts from a P500 million fund to be given annually per region throughout the country.

The reelectionist senator said the scheme would liberate microentrepreneurs from abusive loan sharks and terms of payment that could prove steep given their current financial conditions.

Cayetano told reporters the funds could be taken from the CCT being distributed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development but would be handled by private associations well versed with the working conditions of the target beneficiaries.

Cayetano presented the results of his ‘listening tour’ to an audience inside the Taguig City University auditorium Wednesday morning via a noontime show format of lights and musical numbers directed by hsi younger brother Lino, a popular movie and television director.

Dubbed PiTiK for ‘Presyo, Trabaho, Kita,’ Cayetano’s campaign caravan intends to find ‘wholesale solutions’ to grassroots problems by consulting people on the ground.