Probe sought on selection of CCT beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines - A lawmaker wants the House of Representatives to look into the selection of beneficiaries of financial assistance under the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

In a resolution, Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing said the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is now in the process of identifying “a new batch of poor and near-poor households that would receive monthly financial support from the CCT program.”

“The inquiry will address complaints and problems in the conduct of the second nationwide assessment of households considered poor and formulate the necessary remedial legislation,” she said.

The survey also aims to monitor the progress in the lives of poor households identified in the previous assessment now receiving subsidies, she added.

During a recent consultation in Guimba town in her district, the DSWD head enumerator set a limit on the number of households to be interviewed when a barangay official gave the enumerator an estimate of the number of households in the locality, Suansing said.

Not all of the households will be interviewed because their barangay is considered an urban area, she quoted the enumerator as saying.

In its website, the DSWD has announced: “All households in rural areas will be enumerated, while assessment in urban areas will be done in pockets of poverty or areas in the barangay where clusters of poor reside,” Suansing said.

“This selective process in collecting data from urban areas may be a more convenient way in conducting household interviews and surveys considering the country’s population, but it hinders the purpose of the second nationwide assessment to properly and accurately identify the poor and deserving beneficiaries of cash transfers,” she said.

“There is profound inequality in household situations between urban areas in provinces and cities throughout the country, not just in the first district of Nueva Ecija. Many barangays in our district may be considered urban, but most of their inhabitants are living below the poverty line.”

Many of her poor constituents were not included in the first assessment and therefore not CCT beneficiaries, though they are qualified for government financial assistance, Suansing said.

“In order to prevent exclusion of deserving families from the second nationwide assessment because of the selective identification process in urban areas, all households should be interviewed and surveyed, regardless of whether they live in rural or urban centers,” she said.

President Aquino is seeking about P64 billion for cash transfers to the poor for 2016, the same amount that is budgeted for the program this year.

A large part of CCT funds goes to training personnel and contract workers in identifying beneficiaries of cash transfers.

Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz of Abakada said the government has been spending billions for the identification process and for the CCT program since 2010.