GMA allies want to meddle in P21-billion cash transfers -Lagman

MANILA, Philippines – Opposition congressmen want to meddle in the implementation of President Aquino’s P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program after failing to convince the House of Representatives to cut the funds by P6 billion.

Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, on behalf of the 30 or so members of his opposition bloc, has proposed the creation of a “congressional oversight committee on the CCT to strictly monitor the implementation of the program.” Lagman’s group includes former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has criticized the program she started two years ago.

CCT aims to give cash assistance of up to P1,400 a month for 12 months to the “poorest of the poor” households, provided parents make sure their children go to school and beneficiaries attend family development sessions.

Lagman said part of the task of his proposed oversight committee would be to “validate the existence of unusable balances, which shall be considered as savings to be realigned to the Department of Education and Department of Health.”

The creation of the committee is one of the minority’s proposed amendments to next year’s P1.645-trillion national budget, which the House approved on second reading last Saturday. Before approving the budget, the House rejected a proposal from the minority to cut the CCT funding by P6 billion.

The opposition bloc’s proposed amendments are contained in a letter Lagman sent to Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, appropriations committee chairman, last Tuesday.

Besides proposing the creation of an oversight committee, the minority group is also seeking a “detailed itemization” of the P21-billion lump-sum CCT appropriation to “facilitate and expedite the proper monitoring of the implementation of the CCT program.”

“The detailed items of expenditure shall cover recruitment and training of personnel, procurement and distribution of equipment and supplies, emoluments and allowances for concerned personnel, other allied operational expenses; and amount required for actual conditional cash transfer to family-household beneficiaries broken down by geographic regions and local government units,” Lagman said in his letter to Abaya.

Another proposed amendment of the minority is an increase of P1 billion in “personal services” (the budget language for salaries) for the Supreme Court (SC).

In his 2011 budget proposal, the President increased funds for the Supreme Court and the judiciary by P1 billion, from P13.3 billion this year to P14.3 billion next year.

However, the SC sought an additional P980 million to restore the monthly allowances of justices and judges to 100 percent (from the present 70 percent) of their salaries.

Lagman and his colleagues also proposed to allot P1.5 billion in capital outlay for state universities and colleges (SUCs) and to increase the fund for legal assistance to overseas Filipino workers from P27 million to P100 million. Explaining Malacañang’s decision not to appropriate capital outlay for SUCs, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said these state schools have P16 billion in combined deposits lying idle in the bank.

“We want to flush out those funds. We want SUCs to use them instead of the banks using the SUCs’ money,” he said.

The minority group suggested that the augmentations it proposed be taken from the P15-billion private-public partnership fund the President set aside in his 2011 bud-get proposal. The fund is to be used as the government’s counterpart for big infrastructure projects to be undertaken by the private sector. The Aquino government expects to consider at least P100 billion worth of offers from private investors.

But Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. expressed doubt that there would be huge realignments in the P21-billion CCT.

“As you know, the target of everybody is the CCT and as we know there are various attempts at the committee level, at the hearing level and even at the plenary level to reduce it, and as we know it was voted down (during the approval of the national budget last week),” Belmonte told reporters.–-Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star) with Paolo Romero