Dump dole program, Palace ally urges

A LAWMAKER allied with President Benigno Aquino III has urged the Palace to dump the P39.8-billion conditional cash transfer program, saying the increase in poverty and hunger only proved that the dole to the poor was a failure.

Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan said the increase to 10.4 million Filipino households from 9.8 million in June that claim they were poor indicated that the handouts had failed to arrest the incidence of poverty two years after the President made it a centerpiece of his efforts to ease it.

“The increase in poverty incidence and hunger should prompt President Aquino to abandon the Conditional Cash Transfer program and instead support the immediate legislation of poverty relief measures pending in Congress,” Ilagan said.

She cited the survey findings by the Social Weather Stations that showed 52 percent of the respondents or some 10.4 million Filipino households considered themselves poor.

“This is a 3-percent increase from survey the results conducted in June, when the self-rated poverty was only at 49 percent or equivalent to 9.8 million households,” Ilagan said.

“This clearly indicates that the Aquino government’s anti-poverty flagship programs, including the Conditional Cash Transfer, are proving to be dismal failures.”

Ilagan said the government was wasting billions in government funds for a dole program when it could legislate measures that would uplift the conditions of the poor.

She said the Aquino administration had more than quadrupled the allocation for doles—to P39.8 billion in 2012 from P10 billion in 2009. Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today