GMA's rice-for-school program abolished

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration has abolished the food-for-school or rice-for-school program of the Arroyo government and will re-allocate the P3.3-billion budget for this to conditional cash transfers that may be of more help to the poor, Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad and Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said yesterday.

Abad said the program to give each student in public day care and elementary schools one kilo of rice everyday so they would not drop out might not be as effective as the government wanted it to be.

The program was conceptualized because of studies that children who did not have anything to eat no longer went to school.

“The problem is that the program is flawed. The DepEd (Department of Education) is not structured for that, it’s not part of the teachers’ job (to distribute rice), they already have a lot of responsibilities,” Abad said.

Abad said the distribution had a lot of leakages since some of the supplies were lost and children of families who were not really poor also got the rice subsidies.

“It’s a form of subsidy that should only be for the poor, the others might not really need such an assistance,” Abad said.

Now that the P3.3-billion budget for the food-for-school program has been re-allocated for the expanded conditional cash transfers, the government would be able to help more poor families, the officials said.

“The DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) has a list of the households who are poor so money will be in the hands of those in need,” Abad said.

He said at least one million households were in need of the cash subsidy but only 700,000 were getting it at present due to lack of funds.

Soliman said she, Abad and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala were still studying if the re-allocation could already be done this year or in 2011.

PDAF allocation

At the Senate, allies of President Aquino backed the move of the new administration to publish and scrutinize how lawmakers utilize their respective Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Liberal Party (LP) senators Ralph Recto and Francis Pangilinan said they welcome all moves that would ensure transparency in government.

“We should all welcome transparency in all government projects,” said Recto, who jumped from the then administration Lakas-NUCD party to the Aquino-led LP at the start of the campaign for last May’s national elections.

Pangilinan, who is LP bet for the Senate presidency, said this proposed mechanism will discourage proponents from using their PDAF allocations to fund anomalous projects.

“We welcome the move to make the PDAF allocation more transparent. Once the projects and its beneficiaries are publicized, then the proponents will think twice in using their allocations,” Pangilinan said.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, a member of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) but who has expressed support for Aquino and the LP in the Senate, said he has no objections to the move so that the entire nation will know where the PDAF of each member of Congress is being spent.  

Senators each have P200 million in PDAF.

Estrada added he has no issues on proposals to slash their pork barrel but said this move will also affect the fund assistance lawmakers give to the people.

Returning Sen. Vicente Sotto III and former senator Aquilino Pimentel also regarded the initiative as a good move.

Transparency in IRA

Meantime, an administration lawmaker urged yesterday local officials to also be transparent in using billions of pesos of their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) in the same way that Congress is now working on the full public disclosure of the use of pork barrel funds.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said the local officials currently enjoy “wide latitude of discretion” in using their IRA, which represents the 40 percent share of local government units (LGUs) of internal revenues collected by the national government three years before.

“The DBM (Department of Budget and Management) should rationalize the use of the P266-billion IRA of LGUs to make its use more transparent and responsive to the needs of our people,” Evardone said, referring to the allocation for 2010.

He said there should also be a menu or a list of projects the IRA can finance, just like in the utilization of the pork barrel.

He said IRA-funded projects should focus on the basic needs of the people like health, education, and other social services.

“That’s why there’s a need to have guidelines. Consultations with members of the barangay, municipal, city, and provincial development councils should be mandatory,” he said.

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga, for his part, welcomed Malacañang’s plan to publish the specific use of every pork barrel allocation released to members of Congress, as he previously suggested, “to promote transparency and accountability” in the use of the funds.

He also urged President Aquino to prepare and submit the proposed 2011 national budget “as early as possible” to the new Congress amid growing concerns over the widening gap between government spending and income.

“It would be good if Malacañang can find a way to present next year’s budget a week or two after the July 26 opening of the regular session of Congress. This way, we will have ample time to go over it,” Barzaga said. – With Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero