CCT funding seen to pass Senate scrutiny

The Senate finance committee approved and will submit for plenary deliberations the proposed 2013 budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) amounting P55.98 billion—excluding budget of attached agencies—a major portion of which is the P44.26 billion for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), or the government’s Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program, according to the panel’s chairman.

Sen. Franklin M. Drilon said on Tuesday he is confident that the Senate would support the social-protection packages being implemented by the DSWD, given alarming statistics on poverty in the country.

“We consider the budget approved, and [we] will submit it for consideration of the Senate. I am confident the program can be explained well to the senators, and I see no problem in having the budget of DSWD approved,” he added.

Drilon described the data on poverty in 2003 as “very disturbing.” The poverty threshold, according to him, was P12,475 annually per household and if the family income falls below this level, the family is considered as poor. Drilon said poverty incidence in 2003 was 30 percent and 32.9 percent in 2006.

Poverty incidence in the provinces, according to the senator, is “more alarming” because there are certain provinces where it is twice higher than the national average, specifically in the provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and in certain parts of the Visayas.

Drilon said the 2013 budget of the DSWD is 15.11 percent higher than its current appropriation of P48.63 billion, whereas the government’s main poverty-reduction program, the 4Ps, jumped by 12.2 percent from P39.45 billion this year.

“The increase will basically cover an additional 700,000 household beneficiaries in 2013, reaching the target of 3.8 million from 3.1 million in 2012,” he added.

Drilon said the social welfare department moved to slash from 10 percent to 8.67 percent, equivalent to P3.83 billion, the administrative cost of the CCT Program in 2013. In 2012 the administrative cost amounted to
P3.5 billion.

The program provides cash grants to be used for health, nutrition and educational expenses by the beneficiaries, who had been identified through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction.

It gives a monthly stipend of up to P1,400 on condition that the beneficiaries send or keep their children in school, that their children receive immunization and that mothers avail themselves of pre-natal and other checkups.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said also on Tuesday that the department’s proposed budget for 2013 amounting to P55.98 billion is primarily intended for continuous implementation of DSWD’s contribution to the Aquino administration’s poverty-reduction programs. –BUTCH FERNANDEZ / REPORTER, Businessmirror