Abad confident cash program budget will be approved uncut

The long discussions and heated debates over the P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program will eventually boil down to numbers game, and Malacañang allies will deliver the needed votes, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said Friday. At the sidelines of the deliberations on the P1.6-trillion proposed national budget at the House of Representatives, Abad expressed confidence the general appropriation, including the allocation for the CCT, will be approved without cuts before the day ends. He believed that despite opposition from some lawmakers, the allies of President Aquino will prevail and succeed in pushing the budget as Malacañang proposed. “Well, the CCT is a President’s priority and this House is dominated by the President’s coalition. I his allies will stand behind the President on this important program," Abad told reporters. Commenting on the questions raised at plenary, he said, “It’s part of the process that the minority raises questions which gives the majority the opportunity to clarify and after the debate, House members will have to vote; I‘m confident that the majority will carry the President’s position," he said. “You know, the Speaker said the House is committed to supporting the President on this. And I’m happy that that is the case," he added. He said the CCT budget should not be slashed to allow the country to achieve by 2015 the Millenium Development Goals (MDG), particularly the reduction of dropout rate in basic education as well as maternal mortality rate. “The CCT program is timely because we have a 2015 deadline to achieve the goals. We are committed to the eight indicators under the MDG by 2015 in the two areas. We have to recover from those shortfalls," he said. If the country fails to meet the targets, there will be serious implications “in our attractiveness as an investment destination for multilaterals that are pushing for the achievement the eight goals," Abad said. Meanwhile, he also defended the lump sum – or amounts without specific details – in the budget, particularly those that are intended for the Department of Education. Former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep Gloria Macapagal Arroyo questioned the unspecified amounts during the hearing for the budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. [See story: Ex-president Arroyo faces former friend at DSWD budget hearing] “I think she has to review the budget carefully and intensively," Abad said. He said the Budget department decided to lump the allocation for school buildings, desk and chairs, and teachers’ furniture to make sure there will be desks and chairs for every classroom of new school buildings that will be erected. “Because what happened in the past is was that when we separated the budget for school buildings from school desks and chairs some school buildings did not have these sets of furniture," he said. “Pinagsama na namin yun so that what is provided is a package.... We called them school facilities, in fact it is an improvement (from the previous budget)," Abad said. He also denied that the lump sum was intended to generate savings that could be diverted to other purposes later. “The intention really is to fully utilize them because I think what needs to be seen is that CCT is not CCT by itself, CCT is a whole package of programs that support one another," he said. He said one cannot look at CCT apart from basic education or public health investments apart from immunization investments. “The conditions for the CCT are in fact provided for by additional investments in those areas. So it’s not correct to just look at CCT strictly but you have to look at the totality of the package," Abad said. Aside from the budget of the DSWD, the House is set to deliberate on the proposed budget of the Department of Justice and the Department of Budget and Management. The Congress is set to go on recess starting October 16 and will resume session on November 8. — LBG, GMANews.TV