MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the legality of the government’s P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.
In a 12-page decision released yesterday, the high court dismissed the petition filed in March last year by a group led by former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. for lack of merit.
Pimentel argued that the CCT violated the Constitution and the Local Government Code of 1991 that he authored.
The petitioners argued that the CCT program recentralized functions of the national government – including delivery of social welfare and health services – that were already assigned by the Local Government Code to local government units (LGUs).
They said the LGUs – not the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) – should implement cash dole-out projects.
But the high court ruled that LGUs have no power over a program funded by the national government even if it involves the delivery of basic services under paragraph (c), Section 17 of the Local Government Code.
“The allocation of a P21-billion budget for an intervention program formulated by the national government itself but implemented in partnership with the local government units to achieve the common national goal development and social progress can by no means be an encroachment upon the autonomy of local governments,” it held in the
ruling penned by Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe. Justices of the high tribunal unanimously agreed to this ruling.
Pimentel was joined by Sergio Tadeo, chair of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) in Nueva Ecija; and Nelson Alcantara, head of Barangay Sta. Monica in Quezon City. They clarified that they do not oppose the project, but only the manner by which it is being implemented.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman were named respondents in the case.
The CCT program, patterned after anti-poverty programs in South American countries, was a flagship project of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It is being continued by the Aquino administration.