Government's expanded conditional cash transfer program timely - Abad

MANILA, Philippines –  The Aquino administration’s expanded conditional cash transfer (CCT) program is “timely, responsive and a substantial improvement” of the existing program, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said on Friday.

 “Our CCT program is timely because it seeks to enable the Philippines to comply with its Millennium Development Goal commitments in 2015, where it is now lagging behind in two of eight indicators. It is responsive, because it targets directly the poor households and addresses severe reversals in key social indicators such as universal elementary education and maternal healthcare,” he said.

Former President Arroyo has criticized the current administration’s P21-billion CCT program, saying that this is an ambitious project.

However, Abad said the Aquino government did not only expand the CCT program but also ensured a complete and comprehensive package.

“The 2011 reform budget provides funding to significantly address resource gaps in basic education and to provide maternal healthcare facilities and immunization services especially in the countryside.

Furthermore, Abad believes that the CCT project is one of the few effective programs inherited from the previous administration.

 “It is timely, relevant and responsible to expand the program and also to tie its implementation with meaningful investments in education and healthcare services,” Abad said.

The CCT scheme, implemented in 2008 is a poverty alleviation and social assistance strategy similar to those adopted in some Latin American and South East Asian countries.

Under the current program, the Department of Social Welfare and Development provides money to the poor on the condition that they make investments in human capital like sending their children to school or bringing them to health centers regularly.

The first CCT program was developed in Mexico nearly 10 years ago. Other countries implementing the program are Columbia, Brazil, Jamaica, Ecuador, Chile, Honduras, and Bolivia. 

Abad said the new administration gave the Department of Education its biggest budgetary increase in a decade by P32.3 billion to P207.3 billion.

It also increased funding for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program of the Department of Health to P7.1 billion in 2011 from P3.2 billion in 2010.