Lawmakers warn vs 'ghost' beneficiaries of P21-billion CCT program

MANILA, Philippines - Lawmakers warned the Aquino administration yesterday of the possible emergence of “ghost” beneficiaries of the controversial P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez and Gabriela party-list Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan said the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), tasked to implement the program, may not be able to implement the program efficiently due to its huge scale and that this might lead to anomalies.

The CCT seeks to cover 2.3 million poor households all over the country next year, with each family to receive as much as P1,400 monthly for 10 months subject to certain conditions like having the mother undergo regular check-ups with a local public health center. It is patterned after a similar cash assistance scheme in Brazil.

The program’s critics in the House of Representatives, both from the opposition and the administration, said that while the two-year-old program was good, DSWD’s lack of manpower and absorptive capacity might pose serious problems.

“It will not solve the problem of hunger and poverty. It will just promote mendicancy,” Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Padilla said.

He said the government should instead create jobs for the poor and give them education to adequately prepare them for employment.  

Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the original proponent of the CCT, earlier pointed out that only P17 billion would go to the program as P4 billion would go to training of new personnel and other operational expenses.

Benitez recalled the previous administration, which implemented the CCT program at a smaller scale, was not able to prevent anomalies.

“That is exactly what happened (giving benefits to bogus beneficiaries) in the past. There are still no safeguards to prevent it (ghost family-beneficiaries). No guarantee on the absorption capacity of the DSWD that it can handle the amount with (integrity),” he said.

Ilagan pointed out Malacañang funded the CCT through a loan from the Asian Development Bank.

“It will not be able to target the poor and will make people dependent. The amount is an instrument of political patronage and will become a source of big-time corruption,” Ilagan said.

Earlier, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. gave assurances that special provisions would be included in the P1.64- trillion national budget program creating a congressional oversight committee to monitor the implementation of the CCT. – With Jess Diaz