CCT program to get P10 B more in 2014

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration’s proposed 2014 budget for its flagship conditional cash transfer program for the country’s poorest of the poor has tripled to P62.6 billion – from P29.2 billion in 2011.

Press Secretary Herminio Coloma told a news briefing in Malacañang on Tuesday that allocations for the CCT and Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps) have increased every year, and an additional P10 billion was allotted for next year’s 2014 budget.

“The government’s concern is reflected in the amounts that are being spent in order to address poverty reduction. We have a saying in management: Where you put your money, that is what your strategy is,” he said.

The latest augmentation in the budget for the Department of Social Welfare and Development, according to Coloma, was based on the latest recommendation of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

Budget records show that when President Aquino took over in mid-2010, the government sought – and obtained Congress’ approval – of P29.2 billion in 2011 that gradually rose to P39.4 billion in 2012, and P44.3 billion this year.

This is a far cry from the P10 billion that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo allocated for DSWD in 2010 (before she stepped down in June 2010), P5 billion in 2009, and P299 million in 2008.

In response to the latest Social Weather Stations survey where 10.8 million Filipinos rated themselves poor, Coloma said the national government continues to pour its resources in uplifting the lives of the most marginalized sectors of society.

“This is a determined effort on the part of the government to lift our people from the lowest levels of poverty to attain economic self-sufficiency,” he said, noting that CCT beneficiaries will no longer be limited to grade school but to high school students as well.

As per PIDS estimates, the CCT benefits will be “more enduring and long-lasting” if the government will “follow through” in this poverty reduction program of the Aquino administration.

“Hopefully, once they graduate from high school, then a majority of them can have jobs,” he said, taking note of the baseline profile where only 33 of 100 students enrolled in grade school make it to secondary education, where the rest are dropouts.

The thrust of the administration is “to be able to address this on a sustained basis,” he said.

Coloma also cited the Philippines’ commitment to the Millennium Development Goals where Aquino vowed to reduce the 31 percent poverty level in 1991 into half – or 16 percent – by 2015.

Current poverty levels, according to Coloma, is between 26 and 27 percent.