CLARK FREEPORT – Social Welfare Sec. Dinky Soliman said here yesterday that congressmen, who now want an immediate “exit plan” for the Aquino administration’s condi-tional cash transfer (CCT), were misinformed when they went recently to Mexico to observe a similar program started 14 years ago.
In an interview with Punto, Soliman said Mexican officials in charge of the program in the Latin American country would soon arrive to explain the success of the CCT, also referred to as the Pantawid Pamilya Program or PPP.
She said the congressmen who went to Mexico apparently obtained information from a group called Pro-Campo, instead of the group called Oportunidad which was the implementor of the project in the Latin-American country.
The nine members of the House were led by Negros Oriental Rep. Pryde Henry Teves and Batangas Rep. Mark Llandro Mendoza, chairmen of the committees on agrarian reform and agriculture and food, respectively.
They prepared a joint committee report urging “an exit plan” for the government dole out program whose funding would be increased to P39.8 billion next year.
Mendoza said the two House committees would recommend a halt to the program by 2014 to prevent it from becoming a campaign issue and also to avoid the possibility of the government being heavily indebted just to sustain the project.
He noted that the Mexican government is now in deep debt because of the program and that the program is now on its 14th year amid its alleged failure to exit from it amid threat of revolution from its millions of family beneficiaries.
He also noted that like the CCT program in the Philippines, the Mexican program was initially supposed to last only five years but is now on its 14th.
Teves was quoted to have said, “We need to wean the people from handouts by 2014 or we will never get out of it, just like Mexico.”
Soliman said, however, that the target 5.2 million beneficiaries is not expected to be fully identified until 2015.
“I have talked to Teves, Mendoza and the others and they wanted to know our exit strategy for the program. So we have invited Oportunidad (officials) here to explain,” she said.
Soliman said that the version of the CCT implemented by Oportunidad in Mexico “is one of the must successful”, adding that beneficiaries reported improved financial standing, while their children were able to finish schooling.
She said the Mexican embassy has also committed to share information on the success of Oportunidad.
Soliman also said that the program was extended in Mexico because it was found to be successful. “They perceived more need for it with its 100 million population, especially for indigenous peoples,” she added.
She noted, however, that unlike in Mexico, the CCT of the government has also incorporated starting this year a “sustainable livelihood program” for beneficiaries. “That makes the difference and they (Mexicans) want to learn (from us),” she also said.
Soliman also downplayed that the CCT would greatly put the Aquino government into heavy debt, as she noted that the $400 million loan from the Asian Development Bank and another $500 million from the World Bank would cover only 900,000 of CCT beneficiaries.
“Our foreign loan is payable in five years, with a grace period of five years and an interest of less than one percent. That’s a very soft loan,” she said.
