Belmonte supports creation of committee to monitor CCT program

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. expressed support for the creation of a congressional oversight committee to monitor the implementation of the Aquino administration’s P21-billion conditional cash transfer program (CCT). “I support the initiative of the party-list people to create an oversight (committee) and at a certain point, examine the actual spending to see if the P21-billion can be spent wisely in a year," he said in a press conference in Quezon City on Thursday. Belmonte added that he wants the proposed congressional oversight committee “to look at the whole CCT program and not just the money side." The House Speaker likewise said that he wants any savings from the program to be allocated to other “social activities," specifically to the government’s health and education programs. “If everybody agrees that the budget cannot be fully spent, I propose that the money be used for supportive activities, like allocating it for schools and health. In other words, any savings, if there is any, cannot be used anywhere else except for these social activities," he said. These proposals will be incorporated in the 2011 national budget through “special provisions" that will be placed under the allocations for the CCT program, according to Belmonte. “This will not entail amending money, but only placing special provisions—one on the oversight committee and another for the limitations on how the savings will be spent. I think we will do that," he said. Party-list representatives and members of the House minority proposed this week the creation of a congressional oversight committee to monitor the government’s CCT program after they failed to convince members of the House to slash the program’s P21-billion budget allocation by P6 billion. The P21-billion budget for the dole-out program, which will be implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), was part of the P1.645 trillion 2011 “reform budget" which the House approved on second reading last week. Despite his support for the House minority’s proposal to create the oversight committee, Belmonte maintained that there are no plans to slash the P21-billion budget for the CCT program or the entire P34.3 billion budget of the DSWD. “There is no doubt in the mind of the administration that they can spend this amount. The administration is very confident na kaya nila, so there is no need to slash the budget," he said. The CCT program, which is part of the DSWD’s P29.2-billion Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, aims to give cash assistance of up to P1,400 a month to about 2.3 million poor households in the country. The DSWD requires beneficiaries of the program to satisfy six conditions, including a mother’s visits to health centers and immunization of children, before receiving financial aid. –VVP, GMANews.TV