PRESIDENT-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte has made known the intent to put the liquidity-boosting Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program under review as soon as he takes the helm of the government in a few days, and set the ground under which the P65-billion-a-year exercise may be withdrawn.
When formally pursued, the proposed CCT audit and review has the power to deny the economy the benefits of a liquidity boost that has, thus far, helped flood the economy with estimated cash of more than P200 billion since the program was adopted.
The planned audit and review already forced Malacañang on Sunday to defend the merits of the world’s third-largest liquidity-boosting program the Duterte camp has dismissed as a mere dole-out exercise.
That audit and review has the impact of a Monetary Board decision to siphon off that much money from the financial system at precisely the time when the $285-billion economy needs it the most.
Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. explained an extensive study was conducted before the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) was pursued to make sure the money spent would quickly filter through and reduce poverty, even as it allows long-term investments on education and health to help its poor beneficiaries break the cycle of poverty.
Coloma said conditions were imposed on targeted beneficiaries to continue receiving government aid under the 4Ps, such as attendance of the children of the beneficiary families in school, and their participation in health programs, such as vaccination programs, to make sure those children stay healthy.
President Aquino has justified the huge budget for the 4Ps Program in that poor families require immediate relief from poverty and hunger, and that government assistance is contingent on the attendance of the children in school to make sure they complete school and eventually become
productive citizens.
Since 2014, President Aquino has allocated P65 billion annually for the 4Ps Program and has claimed 1.4 million families or some 7.7 million Filipinos have been lifted from abject poverty because of the liquidity injection. Coloma also said the 4Ps Program has the support of all candidates in the May 9 presidential races, including Duterte himself.
“In the last elections, weT recall that among all the presidential candidates, none declared they will not continue with the CCT Program because of the results of a public opinion survey in which it was indicated that 80 percent of the voters want it to continue, and that they would vote for whomever will continue it,” Coloma said.
However, the President-elect plans to review the CCT Program because it ostensibly promotes dependency among the poor beneficiaries and that the program was not seen able to cut poverty over the medium and long horizon.
Incoming Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, an economist and professor at the University of the Philippines School of Economics, believes any funds allocated for CCT should not come from borrowed money, especially foreign borrowings. Diokno also said any CCT Program should be implemented by local governments, and not centralized with the national government since it is the local governments that own extensive knowledge which families need government aid the most.