DBM: Govt gets 81% of CCT target beneficiaries

The government has met 81.2 percent of its 2.34-million target indigent families to register for its conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said Tuesday. In a statement, Abad said that 1.9 million household-beneficiaries have registered for the CCT program as of end-April. He added that by the end of May, 1.47 million families — or 62.8 percent of the target — would have already received their cash subsidies. He also projected that all targeted beneficiaries would have registered by the end of June. Indigent households Under the P21-billion CCT program, indigent household-beneficiaries would receive a monthly stipend of up to P1,400 — P500 per mother and P300 per child but up to three children only — provided that mothers go for regular pre-natal and other maternal care check-ups, children attend 85 percent of their classes, that the latter undergo immunization. Citing the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Abad said Bicol tops the list of regions with the highest number of registered household-beneficiaries as of end-April, with 205,436. He said the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao follows with 201,316, Zamboanga Peninsula with 194,393, Northern Mindanao with 175,530, and Eastern Visayas with 145,049. Meanwhile, the DSWD has requested additional funding and has proposed to expand the coverage of the CCT program to 3.04 million households, or 30 percent more than this year’s target beneficiaries. ‘Costly palliative’ Late last year, at least 37 solons, most of whom are allies of President Benigno Aquino III, opposed the P21.9-million CCT budget. “The (CCT is) a costly palliative, an unsustainable program of dole-outs that will perpetuate the politics of patronage and encourage a culture of mendicancy. CCTs cannot take the place of a long-term strategy that addresses the root causes of poverty through asset redistribution and job generation," the lawmakers said in a manifesto. — With Paterno Esmaquel II/VS, GMA News