World Bank to fund dole program

Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said on Thursday the country was in negotiations with the World Bank for a $100 million (roughly P4.4 billion) loan to partially fund the Aquino administration’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

The program has a total outlay of P39 billion for next year to come out of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s budget.

Carandang and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said World Bank president Robert Zoellick, who is in the country on a visit, expressed support for the CCT program during a meeting with President Benigno Aquino III and his economic managers at Malacañang Thursday.

Under the program, poor families receive a monthly stipend in exchange for sending their children to school and pregnant mothers getting medical checkups.

“(Zoellick) was quite impressed with the advances in the CCT,’’ said Abad in a phone interview.

The World Bank president, he said, saw the local CCT program as “a big push for poverty reduction,’’ noting that it could be the “biggest CCT in the region.’’

He said Zoellick was also impressed by the fact that “in a short time’’ the Aquino administration was able to cover a lot of poor people under the program.

From 800,000 beneficiaries when the Aquino administration took over last year, the CCT now covers 2.23 million people as of September. The $100-million loan will cover 300,000 families. The program aims to cover 700,000 more.

Abad said the World Bank had also made available to the Philippine government a $500-million catastrophe draw down option loan for disasters and calamities.

“It’s a very cheap loan. One percent of the loan is payable in 25 years with a 10-year grace period,’’ he said.

He said the loan was “almost like a grant’’ and was an “incentive to the government.’’

“It’s a way of saying they are happy with what’s happening here,’’ the budget secretary said.

Abad also said Zoellick did “not see any drastic or serious’’ impact the financial crisis in Europe has had on the Philippines. He suggested the government take advantage of this by addressing the poverty situation through the CCT and initiating infrastructure projects to spur economic growth.