Liquor firms, loan sharks get boost from govt dole

LIQUOR companies and loan sharks are making a killing from the government’s P21.9-billion dole to the poor, an administration ally in the House said Sunday as he joined calls to reject an 82-percent increase in the program’s budget next year.

“We want to know why liquor companies and loan sharks are doing such good business nationwide,” Agham Rep. Angelo Palmones said. He said a report reaching his office showed that liquor sales increased whenever the handouts were released under the government’s conditional cash transfer program.

Palmones said recipients were using the government-issued ATM cards as collateral for loan sharks because the dole was always released late, and sometimes as late as five months.

The Palace wants to increase the dole to P39.8 billion in 2012 and add 700,000 more recipients to the 2.3-million targeted recipients this year.

“It is not enough that Congress is told that some 2.3 million became recipients and 700,000 more would be enlisted. Where did the money go?” Palmones told the Manila Standard.

He said the government’s handout was patterned after a program designed by Brazil that had also been adopted by Mexico, Chile, Nicaragua and some Caribbean countries, but with questionable success.

“Mexico is looking for means to get out of the [dole] program because recipients have become overly dependent on [it], but the people are threatening to mount a revolution if the program is stopped,” Palmones said.

He said the administration’s target to have 5 million recipients by 2015 was problematic.

“That’s 5 million people who would mount a revolution here if the program was stopped,” Palmones said.

The problem in Mexico was serious because the recipients were receiving their handouts from foreign loans, he said. –Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today