MANILA, Philippines – Incoming social welfare secretary Judy Taguiwalo will undertake a review of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, the flagship anti-poverty program of the Aquino administration.
Taguiwalo, whose appointment was announced by the camp of president-elect Rodrigo Duterte the other night, said she would look into allegations that the program is being used for politicking and counterinsurgency.
A former student activist at the University of the Philippines who was arrested, detained and tortured during the Marcos dictatorship, Taguiwalo is one of several individuals nominated to the Duterte Cabinet by the communist movement led by Jose Ma. Sison.
Under the CCT, the country’s poorest are given a monthly cash handout as long as children are kept in school and mothers undergo regular health checkups.
Taguiwalo said one of her objectives is to make sure CCT beneficiaries would be able to stand on their own feet eventually.
She admitted the CCT program has benefited millions of poor Filipinos, “but there are some people who clamor not for dole-out money, but jobs.”
“Is it possible that there are beneficiaries who would be able to organize themselves into cooperatives or other livelihood programs and projects so eventually they’d be able to take care of themselves? In other words, this program will not be suspended, but (we will) merely direct it (toward) a right track so that the beneficiaries will not be depending on allowances alone,” she said.