P39-billion CCT budget facing Senate opposition

SENATORS UNCONVINCED ON EFFICIENCY, IMPLEMENTATION OF DOLEOUTS

President Aquino’s P39-billion budget allocation for his conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that is being handled by social services secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman may have been quickly passed by the House of Representatives without as much as a question or a budget slash, but the same budget allocation appears to be having rough sailing at the Senate, with several senators expressing doubts on the effectivity and implementation of the doleouts, which are claimed by Soliman to reduce poverty, get the children of the poor to go to school, get immunization shots as well as ensure that pregnant mothers get health care.

But instead of pouring in additional resources to the CCT program, government should infuse more funds into deficiencies in education and road networks in the country, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday.

In hearing the proposed budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Sen. Franklin Drilon, a staunch ally of Aquino, indicated, on next year’s the proposed

allocation for CCT, amounting almost P40 billion getting slashed.

From the initial funding by the Aquino administration on the CCT program of P21.1 billion for this year, appropriation for this purpose in the proposed 2012 budget has been increased to P39.4 billion.

Enrile, however, remained unconvinced as to the efficiency of the program in alleviating poverty in the country saying that in the matter of the beneficiaries, the list still needs to be scrutinized carefully even if DSWD Secretary Soliman had already assured that initial purging of the list that saw the removal of 156,000 from the 2.3 million household-beneficiaries.

“If I would have my way, I would lace the country with roads that will connect all human settlements into the poblacion so that they can move by land. Then, they can bring in their products to the market plus deficiencies in school buildings, school desks, school rooms and textbooks because there is no substitute for education as an instrument to bring up the poor families of the country. If they can have one or two of their children graduate from college, then that will be an asset to their whole family,” he pointed out.

Instead of giving doleouts, government should engage in job generation and build more roads so that “people can work and market what they harvest to enjoy the fruits of their labor,” he added.

Enrile also noted the non-inclusion of some known poor areas, which makes the program still questionable to him.

“There are a lot of areas not included in the list. I’m the oldest in Congress. I’m the oldest among all the members of Congress. I guess, over time, I’ve travelled extensively throughout the country. I know, more or less, the condition of all the regions, all the towns of the country. So, I’m questioning the selection process,” he said.

Drilon said the purging of 155,900 representing 6.7 percent of the 2.3 million intended beneficiaries is very “insignificant” to consider the program as ineffective.

“What is important is that the mechanism is in place. As we can see, those not entitled to it were immediately identified,” he said.

“But the fact is the system exposed 155,900 claimants who are disqualified as beneficiaries. They were not actually able, if ever, to get these funds and if they manage to avail of it, still it’s insignificant. Let’s put it in proper context,” he added.

But Drilon remained confident the CCT program can breeze through congressional deliberations.

“We must emphasize that this program is not strictly a poverty alleviation program. Generally the senators are satisfied with the way this program has been implemented… In fact if you are to judge it on the basis of the assessment so far of various agencies, indeed there is a reason to be optimistic about the success of the program,” Drilon said.

Enrile and Senators Panfilo Lacson and Loren Legarda asked Soliman how the beneficiaries to the program were chosen.

Apart from the selection process, Lacson asked whether the DSWD is able to monitor the beneficiaries’ compliance with the program’s requirements. As of September 2011, the DSWD said 2.23 million households were registered to the CCT.

CCT beneficiaries are required to comply with three things: Children must go to school 85 percent of the time; Children must be immunized, and mothers must undergo prenatal and maternal health care check ups.

According to a DSWD report, more than 90 percent of children under the CCT program are in compliance with the first requirement and that 83 percent of children below three years old have been immunized.

Enrile also asked Soliman what was the CCT program’s end goal.

“What does this program seek to achieve? Reduction of poverty, education, or improvement of the health of the people?” he said.

The greatest fear among its critics is that the beneficiaries will become dependent on government dole outs and lose the drive to earn their living,the Senate President pointed out.

Earlier, he suggested that beneficiaries work in exchange for their stipend.

Soliman said that families “exiting” the five-year enrollment to the program are weaned into “sustainable livelihoods” on their way to self-reliance.

Enrile doubted the effectiveness of such livelihood opportunities. “It’s easy to say this… But what kind of sustainable livelihood (will you give them)?” he said. m”In reality, in actual life… it’s going to be difficult to accomplish what you are envisioning,” he added.

Drilon mentioned an appraisal carried out by the University of the Philippines’ National College of Public Administration and Governance saying that “the conclusion of the UPNCPAG is that this PPP program is a bridge program toward poverty alleviation and not program to eradicate poverty totally. It is a principally a human resource development through health and education assistance.

“We have to emphasize this because the impression is that this is a poverty alleviation program, it is not. It is principally a human resource development by addressing our health and education concerns.

“This is why it will cover children ages zero to 14 which number approximately five million children at 2.2 million households. The WB also has made its finding that after three years, the program has shown positive impact on the beneficiaries and conditionalities have helped improve the education and health of the children. These are the five million kids covered. What is important here is that we must show that the net enrollment rate of children, beneficiaries have rescind.

“What is so important, because a conditionality in the CCT is that the children must attend 85 percent of the school days in a month. And therefore, if it is followed, there should be a decline in the dropped out rate. The DepED statistics would show that for every 100 kids of school age who entered grade one, only 64 percent would go to grade four or a drop rate about 36 percent between grade one and grade four.

The Deped head, also during a budget hearing, admitted that the CCT program failed to decrease the number of student dropouts, despite the doleouts.

“This is precisely what the CCT will address and this is where we gauge the success of the program whether or not in fact it will decline after you exit from the program. I repeat, a very concrete measurement is the decline in the drop rate which today is almost 40 percent of grade one pupil. This is program is designed among others to precisely address that very serious drop in the government and by requiring 85 percent attendance that hopefully that will see a decline in the dropped out rate,” Drilon explained.

“These are the concrete data that we would like to see from the DSWD as a basis for our continuously appropriating funds for this very substantial project. So far after two years of this administration, we can see in our assessment that at least there are initial successes but the jury is still out, so to speak, and we will see, maybe at the end of next year, how far we have gone insofar as achieving the purposes of this program is concerned,” said Drilon, chairman of the Senate finance committee. –Angie M. Rosales, Daily Tribune