WB report on CCT, not enough to justify the cash program—urban poor group

NEWS I August 21, 2011

MANILA, Philippines—Urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap belittles the report of World Bank with the Australian Agency for International Development released last friday that the government's cash grant scheme for the poor, more popular as Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps is expected to raise annual income of beneficiaries, and at the same time reduce poverty level.

“The supposed monthly cash grant of P500-P1400 will instantaneously do so, yet it still remains as a dole-out program. The World Bank report will not justify the continuation of the program, and the 39 billion budget allocation for 2012 from taxpayers' money” accoridng to Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national secretary-general.

The effect on the program's beneficiaries is only short-term and the decrease in poverty incidence will only be artificial and temporary, the group said.

“The continuation of the program says of the government incapacity to create jobs that the poor really needed, and to distribute lands that it had long promised its people,” Arellano says.

The Palace in another statement said the WB-AusAID report “validates what [they] have been saying all along—that the 4Ps is an investment in the people.” The said report also stated that the program can increase beneficiaries income by 12.6 per cent, and reduce food poverty among the household beneficiaries by 13.3 points, and the overall all food poverty in program areas by 5.5 percentage points.

This number, determined through simulations of ramdom data, remains insignificant when we are dealing with the practical problems of millions of families that go hungry and millions that are jobless, according to Kadamay.

“It is sad that the Aquino administration has led its people to believe on sugarcoated figures to justify the corruption-prone dole-out program, as it has turned its back to programs that will have lasting and significant effects in addressing the widespread joblessness, hunger and poverty,” Arellano says.

According to the group, genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization free from neo-liberal policies remain the only solution to widespread poverty.

“Aquino's insistence of the CCT will bear no fruits in the years to come. Eventually, poor Filipinos will grow in number, poorer and unsatisfied than ever. It's a reality that this administration will have to face unless it takes the U-Turn slot and gets its poverty-alleviation program on the right track,” Arellano warns.

REFERENCE: Gloria Arellano, Kadamay National Secretary-General l 09213927457