Aquino plans to triple cash payments to 2.3m families

THE Aquino administration will almost triple the cash payments to the needy in its budget next year, doling out P29 billion to 2.3 million poor families nationwide, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said Thursday.

That would more than double the recipients of the so-called conditional cash transfers from one million families and raise the funds set aside for that purpose from P10 billion this year.

“There is a proposal to increase the number of beneficiaries in line with the thrust of the President to prioritize social protection,” Abad told the Manila Standard after the Cabinet meeting at the Bahay Pangarap.

He said the government would keep to its budget ceiling of P1.757 trillion, or 14 percent higher than this year’s spending plan. If approved, next year’s conditional cash transfer program would cover half of the 4.6 million poor families identified by the Social Welfare Department.

A poor family of five with a total income of not more than P6,000 a month qualified for a maximum of P15,000 a year in cash transfers under the previous administration.

That translated to P6,000 annually for preventive health check-ups and vaccines and an educational grant of P3,000 for 10 months per child for a maximum of three children per household.

But the beneficiaries had to meet the following conditions to continue receiving the grant: children aged 3 to 5 must attend day care programs and those 6 to 14 must attend at least 85 percent of school days; parents are required to bring their children to public health centers for immunization and preventive health care; pregnant women must get pre-natal check-ups starting from the first trimester; and parents must attend sessions on natural family planning methods.

Beneficiaries were identified based on a scoring system that included non-ownership of assets and appliances, non-access to water and sanitation facilities, and the level of educational attainment of the household head.

Aside from social services, Abad said, next year’s budget would also give priority to projects promoting transparency, accountability, and good governance; economic services that would include public infrastructure and fiscal space for public-private partnership projects; and projects that would ensure a stable and safe environment covering initiatives on security, peace and climate change.

Abad said the final budget proposal that the Aquino administration planned to submit to Congress on Aug. 24 might be lower than the P1.757 trillion ceiling.

“It can be lower, but definitely not higher. There were proposals not to acquire new vehicles for 2011,” Abad said.

The P1.757-trillion budget ceiling for next year prepared by the Aquino administration is P77 billion more than the P1.68-trillion budget for 2011 that was proposed by the Arroyo administration’s economic managers. –Joyce Pangco Pañares, Manila Standard Today