House mission to Mexico urges an end to govt dole

THE lawmakers who went to Mexico to study its conditional cash transfer program on Tuesday urged the administration to end its own P21.9-billion dole, saying they did not want the Philippines to go through the same difficulties that the Latin American state had been going through.

The nine members of the House were led by Negros Oriental Rep. Pryde Henry Teves and Batangas Rep. Mark Llandro Mendoza, chairmen of the committees on agrarian reform and agriculture and food, respectively.

They said they would submit a joint committee report next week to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. urging “an exit plan” for the government dole that the Aquino administration wants to raise to P39.8 billion next year.

“Get out of the CCT program while the government still can,” Mendoza said.

“Design an exit plan this early. Stop the handouts.”

Mendoza said the two panels would recommend a stop to the program by 2014 to prevent the dole from becoming a campaign issue and force the government to borrow heavily to finance the program.

“The two panels recommend a stop to the CCT by 2014 because we don’t want the Mexico experience to befall our people,” Teves told the Manila Standard.

“The Mexican government now finds it difficult to get out of the program and they have been left with a huge foreign debt.”

“The Philippine CCT program is good for five years,” Mendoza said in a separate interview.

“But that was the same plan of the Mexican government, which has 6 million recipients. Now, every time they plan to get out of the program, the people threaten to mount a revolution.”

Earlier, Agham Rep. Angelo Palmones called for the abolition of the dole.

“We fear that the P39.8-billion dole is becoming a pork-barrel-turned-campaign-war chest,” said Palmones, an ally of President Benigno Aquino III.

“The target for this year is 2.3 million recipients, 3 million by 2013, and 5 million by 2014. We multiply that by two per household and you already have 10 million voting for the administration’s candidates.

“That is also 10 million mounting a revolution if we don’t stop this ticking time bomb in time. We have to stop the CCT program before the election campaign comes in 2015.”

Teves agreed.

“Who among the presidential aspirants would dare commit to stop the dole?” he said.

“The government promised a five-year program. Let’s stick to that. The government should start designing the exit plan. We need to wean the people from handouts by 2014 or we will never get out of it, just like Mexico.”

Teves said the Mexican government’s five-year CCT progra began in 1994, but the government failed to stop it after five years. It is now on its 17th year.

“The Mexican government now relies on foreign loans to fund its CCT program,” Teves said.

“We don’t want our government to go bankrupt just to continue a program that was only meant to be a lifeline for a few years.”

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman has acknowledged that the P21.9-billion dole this year came from a $400-million loan from the World Bank and a $405-million loan from the Asian Development Bank.

“The soft loans funded the CCT for some 900,000 recipients with a small 1 percent interest, with a five-year grace period and payable in 25 years,” Soliman told the Manila Standard.

“No foreign loans were contracted to fund the proposed P39.8 billion for three million recipients.”

The House contingent went to Mexico at the World Bank’s invitation, but the House shouldered its expenses, Teves said. They met with their counterparts and visited farms to talk to the farmers, who were recipients of the government dole. –Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today