CLARK FREEPORT – Budget Sec. Florencio Abad said here yesterday the Aquino administration is ready invest a total of P70 billion in its conditional cash transfer (CCT) program up to 2015, as he called for support from civil society groups to lobby Congress for annual funding.
This, even as Social Welfare Sec. Dinky Soliman, a three-day gathering of civil society groups participating in the CCT nationwide, assured critics she has no plans to run for senator amid the extensive reach of the program all over the country.
“Some critics of Dinky say she will run for senator, but I am happy she has no such plan. It’s not good to mix it with politics or the flow of the program will be affected,” Abad said in his speech before a three-day gathering here of 135 civil society groups helping the government implement CCT program, also called the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program nationwide.
“The Aquino administration is banking heavily on the CCT program so it must succeed. It’s a flagship program for the administration,” Abad said.
Abad noted “some criticism and apprehension among some members of Congress.”
“Some politicians understand the program because of their insights into their areas, but there are some who think of it as competitors and they want the program halted or they want it to fail,” he said.
Abad said that apart from helping the poorest families survive and later become financially independent, the CCT program was also designed to remove the influence of patronage politics, particularly among the most disadvantaged.
“Some see the program’s long term effect on people who would cease to be lured by political patronage based on dependency relationship especially during elections.
If the program becomes permanent and the lives of people improve, these people become less dependent,” he noted.
Abad said Pres. Aquino sees the CCT program as a means to provide the poorest Filipino families with a “salbabida” or a mere means towards financial independence.
“All cabinet members are aware of the CCT program’s in the context of the entire Aquino government programs. Its success will also be the success of the economy, as this will lead to the growth of the domestic market,” he said.
Abad noted that for 2012, the government would need up to P39 billion to implement CCT with its 2.3 million family-beneficiaries.
“The entire project would cost about P70 billion for some three million beneficiaries on the fifth year which would be about three percent of a national budget projected at that time to be at P2.4 trillion,” he added.
He said that “if the three million (beneficiaries) speak out, Congress will listen, but they haven’t spoken out yet.”
