'CCT report reaffirms goal to improve lives'

   
'CCT report reaffirms goal to improve lives'

By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated August 21, 2011 12:00 AM Comments (5) 

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang welcomed yesterday the joint report of the World Bank (WB) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) that the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program for indigent families can raise their annual incomes by 12.6 percent, thus reducing poverty incidence by 6.2 percent.                                                            

In a statement, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the report reaffirms the belief of the administration that the program is a “solid foundation” for improving the quality of life of impoverished Filipinos.

The report, which was released on Friday, said the program can reduce overall food poverty in areas covered by 5.5 percent.

The CCT program, also known as the “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program,” provides cash grants to indigent families on condition that they send their children to school, have infants immunized from diseases, and that mothers visit community health centers.

“And while the increase in household incomes is indeed an intended objective of the program, the government’s overall social program involves much more in ensuring that beneficiaries remain healthy, educated, and productive, thus giving them the ability to raise their lot in life,” Lacierda said.

The CCT program is patterned after the cash transfer program in Brazil.                        

 “Studies of various CCT programs worldwide have shown how such transfers are indeed directed toward prioritizing food on the table. If this is so, results suggest that the Pantawid Pamilya (program) can reduce food poverty among household beneficiaries by 13.3 percentage points. Consequently, it can reduce overall food poverty in program areas by 13.3 percentage points,” Lacierda said.                                                            He said the program seeks to produce skilled and educated citizens.                                                

 “This is in fact only one aspect of a wide-ranging strategy toward inclusive growth: the government is continuously working toward ensuring a level playing field that will encourage investors and generate jobs,” he said.


 
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which manages the program, said the beneficiaries who graduate from the program will also be given cash capital to start a business.

    In an interview during the CCT’s first convergence caravan held in Mandaluyong City yesterday, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the first set of beneficiaries will graduate from the program in 2013. These are indigent families covered by the program since 2008.                                                     

 Soliman said her department is conducting a resurvey in 14 cities in the National Capital Region (NCR), starting in Mandaluyong, to eliminate unqualified recipients from the list of beneficiaries.

She said 400 families of the 150,000 recently removed from the DSWD list of covered families admitted they were not qualified to be beneficiaries of the CCT program.       

Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos said the city government will provide one job per family to support the CCT program.  

He said the local government has partnered with various companies that can provide carpentry, welding, and automotive jobs. Four hundred people have so far been provided jobs.

The city will also create a funeral parlor for the burial needs of city residents.

Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II told the city’s beneficiaries that an amount of P100,000 may be provided for each group to enable them to start their own businesses.

“(An) exit plan has to be prepared for all of you. Start your own business. So that when you graduate from this program, the CCT will be extended to other families who are also in need like you,” he said.

Beneficiaries testify

Melanie Encabo, a resident of Welfareville, Barangay Addition Hills in Mandaluyong has been a beneficiary of the CCT program since last year. She said the P1,400 cash grant she has been receiving each month from the government is a big help to her family.

“Now, I can buy the food and school needs of our children,” she said.

Another beneficiary, Marilyn Soria, said aside from being able to buy the needs of her children in her school she can also buy vitamins for them.

“My husband is working on and off as a mason. We hope that this program will continue,” Soria said.

A teary-eyed Colleen Nubia, a Grade 6 student, said she and her siblings are now going to school with allowance.

“We are very thankful to President Noynoy Aquino. We hope that he will continue this program,” she said.

Ederlyn Padias, principal of the Jose Fabella Memorial School in Welfareville, said there has been a drastic increase in enrolment because of the CCT program.

“The enrolment of pupils in our school increased from 700 last year to 900 this year. This is an indication that the recipients of the conditional cash transfer program are now going to school,” Padias said.

At present, there are 1,400 CCT beneficiaries in Mandaluyong. - With Jose Rodel Clapano, Evelyn Macairan

    

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