EDITORIAL - Children begging is proof of CCT farce

Every now and then, somebody somewhere takes issue with children begging in the streets. Some of these children make random appearances in any of the city's busy streets. Some, on the other hand, have become almost permanent fixtures in certain areas. Still others, especially now that we are moving close to Christmas, have taken up the pretext of caroling even if they are essentially just begging.

The issue is not just about begging, against which there are applicable but largely unenforced national and local laws. The issue is also about the safety of these children. The reckless abandon with which they ply their trade, perhaps due in large part to the fact that they do not know any better, unavoidably places their lives, as well as of motorists, in serious danger.

But there is another issue associated with this begging in the streets by children that is not as old, and as neglected, as the concern for their safety and that of others. It is a relatively new issue that has largely escaped notice. It is the issue of why these children are still out there in the streets begging when there is supposed to be a program already to keep them in school and out of harm's way.

And that is the much-ballyhooed Conditional Cash Transfer program of the national government, a massive cash doleout initiative costing taxpayers billions and billions of pesos each year. Beneficiaries of this program are given several thousands of pesos each month on condition that, among other requirements, they have to keep their children in school.

Well, the fact that there are hordes of school-age children begging in the streets of Cebu City is incontrovertible proof that the program is a failure. The sight of school-age children begging in the streets instead of being in school shows that the beneficiaries of the program are simply pocketing the hard-earned money of taxpayers but are not complying with the conditions for which they are given thousands of pesos in cash doleouts every month.

This means that the Conditional Cash Transfer program is conditional only on paper. This means that the billions of pesos in taxpayers money are not being used for the purposes for which they were given. This means that if that is the case, the program being the complete failure that it is should be scrapped at once to stop the multi-billion-peso bleeding.

If the children are not being kept in school, then you have to wonder where the money for their schooling went. In all likelihood, the money got spent on expenditures of which the possibilities are endless. The money to keep children in school could have gone to feed the gambling and drinking habits of their parents. They could even have gone to sustain the drug addiction of the beneficiaries. Whatever it is, what more proof is needed that the CCT is nothing but a farce.