CCT program targets 4.4 M beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines - The government aims to help more than four million poor families with up to P1,200 in monthly cash dole-outs under its conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told the House appropriations committee chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab yesterday that the CCT program targets 4,436,732 household beneficiaries next year.

Soliman said the 2015 target represents an increase of more than 200,000 over the number of families identified to receive financial assistance this year.

She said funding for the program would go up to P64.738 billion from this year’s P62.614 billion.

Soliman said results of a recent survey show that the program “is on track in meeting its objectives of keeping children health and in school” and in reducing poverty.

Researchers from the academe were commissioned to conduct the survey.

The results show that among CCT beneficiary-families, 57.8 percent of children under five years of age were breastfed by their mothers for six months, as against 43.4 percent among non-CCT families.

Some 55.1 percent of children with fever or cough visited a public health center, compared to 43.4 percent of children belonging to non-CCT beneficiaries.

The drop-out rate among children aged 12-15 of CCT families was 6.7 percent, more than double the 15 percent rate for non-CCT beneficiaries.

A high 81.3 percent of children up to six years of age of CCT families received vitamin A supplement, as against 72.6 percent of children of families not covered by the program.

The survey also found that household food expenditure among CCT beneficiaries increased.

Militant party-list representatives have claimed that despite tens of billions in cash dole-outs, the government has not made a significant dent on poverty.

They said the huge CCT funding is being used as a pork barrel.