Palace ought to review anti-poverty programs

THE economy’s poor showing bolsters arguments for revamping the government’s poverty-alleviation policies. President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd and his economic managers should abandon doles outs in favor of sustainable and dignified means of uplifting the lot of poor folk, such as creating jobs.

Recent reports said that the economy grew at 3.7 percent in 2011, down from 7.6 percent from the previous year. Around the same time, SWS reported that the hunger rate rose slightly to 22.5 percent in the last quarter of 2011. These latest figures should trigger a review of the present anti-poverty programs that ought to be evaluated regularly anyway.

To be fair to the President, SWS also reported a 7-point drop in the self-rated poverty rate in December, but at 45 percent, the figure remains too high. Also, Social Welfare Sec. Dinky Soliman dismissed the hunger rate increase, saying the figure was within the survey’s margin of error. But she seems to be missing the point, because one could also note that no significant improvement could be gleaned in the hunger report despite the hefty sums spent on poverty-intervention programs.

For 2012, the social services sector will receive 31.7 percent of the P1.8 trillion national budget – that is, P575.8 billion. That amount represents an increase of 10.4 percent from the previous year. The allocation for the CCT program was also ramped up to more than P39 billion so that the number of beneficiaries could be increased to 3 million families nationwide. As we mentioned before, we have reservations about this.

We do not think that the CCT program should be abandoned, as suggested by some. But it should be scaled down to a manageable level and should be focused on aiding only the poorest of the poor who have no means of helping themselves. For instance, why should poor families in Metro Manila be included in the CCT program? The adult members of those families should be given jobs instead. The CCT funds should be reserved for the poorest regions, where there are little or no possible means of finding a decent livelihood.

The CCT, though, is not the only dole-out program in President Aquino’s arsenal against poverty. On Wednesday, he announced plans to lend P10 million to gasoline stations, a move aimed at easing the impact of rising oil prices. President Aquino also said that P200 million was ready for the fuel-subsidy initiative, the Pantawid Pasada Program.

Focus on jobs generation

We side with those who argue that dole outs and subsidies make for bad public policy. Instead, President Aquino should focus on job generation, specifically by increasing public spending on infrastructures, particularly classrooms.

As mentioned by many others before, government underspending exacerbated the economic slowdown last year. The government is making up for that by front-loading public spending this year. But more can be done.

Also recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the Philippines needed more investments, particularly in public infrastructure projects. We agree. But the obvious question is, where will the money come from?

This year’s government budget is locked in. But for 2013 up to 2016 when President Aquino finishes his term, the priority should be shifted to beefing up public construction as a means of generating jobs and reducing poverty. Of course, any meaningful job-generation program should also address mismatches between job seekers and placement opportunities.

Furthermore, we urge President Aquino to wield his high popularity in compelling other public officials to pitch in. For instance, President Aquino should convince lawmakers to abandon their so-called pork barrel or to channel those funds toward the construction of roads or classrooms. We favor the latter. But a variation of this idea could be to restrict “pork barrel” spending to classroom construction in 2013, to road construction in 2014, and so on.

Ideally, lawmakers should not be receiving pork barrel anyway. And if we have our way, we would transfer those funds to vital infrastructure projects. Imagine, each congressman is allocated P70 million in pork barrel funds annually, P200 million yearly for each senator. Combined, those funds could significantly contribute to eliminating the classroom shortage across the country. But controlling those funds rather than eliminating them totally might be the more realistic approach.