MANILA, Philippines – It’s the conditional cash transfer, not a rice transfer program.
Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon questioned the move of the Duterte administration to provide beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) with sacks of rice to go along with the cash grants under the program.
Addressing the President’s economic managers during the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s briefing on the proposed P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017 at the Senate yesterday, Drilon said it would be better to distribute cash and not “in kind” to the poor families under the CCT program.
Drilon argued that giving cash to the CCT beneficiaries would give them a free hand to decide how they wish to spend the funds depending on their needs.
“If they want rice then they can buy rice,” he said.
Drilon said the distribution of rice to the beneficiaries would also entail some additional costs on logistics on the part of the government.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno agreed with Drilon, saying that granting cash to the beneficiaries would give them more flexibility than giving them sacks of rice.
He said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez also shared the same sentiment.
President Duterte had ordered the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to automatically enroll for lifetime support the families of the fallen soldiers and policemen under the 4Ps program.
Not possible, says DSWD
DSWD Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, however, said the department cannot implement the automatic enrollment of families of soldiers and policemen killed in the line of duty under the 4Ps.
Taguiwalo said the DSWD already has established mechanisms that can help soldiers and policemen slain in action, and these systems could better address the specific needs of the families left behind.
She said the system involves an assessment of a particular family in distress, from which case management will be done by a social worker assigned to the case.
Since it is a human development program, the CCT is intended only for the poorest of the poor in the country.
Jobs for widows, too
The President also ordered the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to arrange for the employment of widows of fallen troops.
Aside from the 4Ps program, each of the families of the fallen troopers will also receive a sack of rice monthly.
“I would like you to know that you are automatically members of the 4Ps. There will be little cash monthly assistance and one sack of rice,” Duterte said during a visit to the wake of the fallen troops in the gym of the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City.
The expansion of the CCT program in order to include the grant of rice was the brainchild of Duterte, who mentioned it in his State of the Nation Address last July.
Under the expanded CCT program, each family would receive a 20-kilogram sack of rice every month starting January next year.
Based on the proposed national budget submitted by Malacañang to Congress, around P23.4 billion would be needed for the provision of rice to the beneficiaries.
For the CCT program alone, Diokno said a total budget of P49.3 billion would be needed for 2017.
There are currently 4.4 million beneficiaries of the CCT and, according to Diokno, this figure would remain the same next year.
Under the CCT program, each poor household could receive as much as P1,400 every month or P15,000 a year for five years.
As the name suggests, the CCT uses cash grants to help improve the health, nutrition and education of children aged 0-18 years.
The program was patterned after the CCT schemes in Latin American and African countries, such as Brazil.
The DSWD is in charge or administering the program. – Roel Pareño, Christina Mendez, Rainier Allan Ronda, Janvic Mateo