LP may use P64-B CCT funds for campaign – UNA

MANILA, Philippines - The P64-billion fund for the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program this year could be used to bankroll the campaign of Liberal Party candidates next year, according to the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of Vice President Jejomar Binay.

UNA spokesman Mon Ilagan said it was LP stalwart and Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice himself who said the CCT program, also known as the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps), would ensure “an easy win” for administration presidential bet Manuel Roxas II in 2016.

“It was Congressman Erice himself who said that the 4Ps is LP’s mechanism to make Mar Roxas win. This scenario of using 4Ps funds to influence or indirectly buy votes for their bet in the 2016 polls is very alarming,” Ilagan said.

“The conditional cash transfer literally comes with ‘conditions’ and with some strings attached. With P64 billion allocated to DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) for this purpose, the distribution of CCT funds from January to May 2016 will definitely affect voting behavior. No doubt, it has become a legal mechanism to buy their way to Malacañang,” he said.

Ilagan said UNA is also convinced that the P3-trillion national budget for 2016 is nothing more than an LP war chest intended to “turbo-charge” the chances of Roxas and other LP bets in the national elections.

He said the government has steadily increased the funding for CCT starting from P29.2 billion in 2011, and it has risen to P64 billion for 2016, targeting about five million beneficiaries.

Ilagan said the LP, as the ruling party, will use everything in its disposal to ensure that its bets would top the 2016 elections.

Ilagan, meanwhile, maintained that Binay would continue the CCT program should he get elected president next year.

The Vice President, however, said the CCT program needs to be complemented with bigger government spending for health centers and hospitals, facilities as well as cheaper medicine.