Miriam backs calls to slash CCT budget

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Wednesday added her voice to earlier calls by at least four other Senate colleagues to slash the P21-billion budget of the administration's conditional cash transfer (CCT) program for 2011. In a letter to Senate finance committee chairman Senator Franklin Drilon, Santiago proposed to cut the CCT budget from P21 billion to P15 billion. "With a new administration with no demonstrated ability to implement such a massive social protection program, a 50-percent increase in the CCT program, from P10 billion to P15 billion is generous enough," she said. The CCT is supposed to grant a monthly stipend of up to P1,400 per family to 2.3 million of the 4.6 million poorest families nationwide. The program is part of the P29.2-billion Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Santiago said she wants the program to succeed but that the DSWD does not have a "track record" of being able to implement such a large-scale project effectively and efficiently. A "small leak" in the program, even by just 10 percent, would represent a possible budget wastage of P2.1 billion, she explained. "This is an intolerable amount considering the current financial status of the government. We want to make sure that services are delivered on time and to the intended beneficiaries," she said. She likewise said that the required quarterly progress report by the DSWD must be "specific, contestable, and time-bound." Santiago added that the names of the recipients should be made available to the public. "In the spirit of transparency and accountability, citizens should know who the CCT recipients are," she said. During Tuesday's budget deliberations, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sought to slash the CCT budget by P8 billion, also in the fear that the DSWD might not be able to handle the P21-billion budget properly. Senators Edgardo Angara, Gregorio Honasan, and Francis Escudero had also earlier sought to cut the CCT budget by at least P6 billion. Angara, however, said that other senators asked them to give the project a chance and that they obliged. Drilon, for his part, said he will do everything in his power to keep the CCT allocation intact. As of posting time, the senators are in a caucus discussing the disputed items in the 2011 budget. The House minority bloc had earlier criticized the Aquino government for its alleged "band aid" or short-term solutions to poverty, which supposedly includes the CCT. The House eventually approved the 2011 General Appropriations Bill without any cuts on the CCT.—Kimberly Jane T. Tan/JV, GMANews.TV