CCT defended vs threats from Senate minority

MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto yesterday defended the Aquino administration’s P44-billion Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) project from the Senate minority bloc’s threat to strictly scrutinize it in the upcoming budget hearings.

In a radio interview, Recto said he believes that approving the CCT project, which compensates families to encourage them to send their children to elementary schools and targets to cover 28 million poor Filipinos by 2015, is already a “foregone” conclusion at the Senate.

He stressed that the CCT program is “an affirmative action for the poor” and gives “equal opportunity to those who cannot finish their education.”

“You are investing in the future of our country - our youth. That is the best investment that you can make,” added Recto, a member of the administration’s Liberal Party.

But he said the Department of Social Welfare and Development should explain during the budget hearings certain issues such as the projected P1-billion administrative cost for CCT’s implementation next year.

“Is the five percent administration cost proper? That will be the subject of the debates... We want to stretch every peso,” Recto said.

The Senate will start the budget hearings shortly after the House of Representatives kicks off deliberations on the 2014 budget.