House panel OKs bill institutionalizing CCT program

MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on appropriations has approved the funding provision of a bill seeking to institutionalize the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to cover 60 percent of the country’s extremely poor.

The panel, chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, approved the funding provision of the bill, which was earlier passed by the House committee on poverty alleviation chaired by Camarines Sur Rep. Salvio Fortuno.

The funding provision contained in Section 17 of the measure provides that the amount necessary to carry out the provision shall be charged against those authorized in the current and subsequent General Appropriations Acts (GAA).

“The appropriations shall continue until the CCT program has covered 60 percent of the total number of extremely poor in the Philippines as may be determined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA),” the provision stated.

The funding shall be included in the annual budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Malacañang proposed a budget of P64 billion for the CCT program in the P3.002-trillion national budget for 2016. The Senate, however, reduced it by P8 billion and reallocated it to other agencies, including the Air Force.

The bill defines poor as households whose income falls below the poverty threshold as defined by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and cannot afford, in a sustained manner, to provide their minimum basic needs of food, health, education, housing and other essentials of life.

It refers to the CCT program as the national poverty reduction strategy that provides cash to poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education.

It provides that subject to certain conditions, each qualified household-beneficiary shall receive a CCT equivalent to P500 per month for health and nutrition expenses or the equivalent of P6,000 per qualified household-beneficiary per year.

A maximum of three children per qualified household-beneficiary shall be given the following conditional cash grant for educational expenses: P300 per month per child enrolled in elementary or the equivalent of P3,000 per 10-month school year; P500 per month per child enrolled in junior high school or the equivalent of P5,000 per 10-month school year; and P700 per month per child enrolled in senior high school or the equivalent of P7,000 per 10-month school year.

A supplementary education grant of P300 per month shall be given to the child in elementary or high school who has maintained passing grades in all subjects after the second year of the program.

Among the conditions for continued eligibility are: children 0 to 5 years old must receive regular preventive health check-ups and vaccinations; children six to below 18 years old must avail of de-worming pills at least twice a year; children three to five years old must attend daycare or pre-school classes at least 85 percent of the time; children must attend elementary or high school classes at least 85 percent of the time; and pregnant women must get pre-natal and post natal care and must be attended by a skilled or trained health care professional during childbirth in a health facility.

The measure institutionalizing the CCT was authored by former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who first introduced the program in 2008.