Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries from Manila show their household IDs while waiting for their turn to receive their cash grants during the pay-out held at Manila Central Post Office. (Photo from ncr.dswd.gov.ph)
Administration and opposition House leaders joined the Makabayan bloc in pushing for a congressional probe into the alleged misappropriation of P19-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) funds.
In a Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) report last Thursday, it said that one-third of the P62 billion allocated for the CCT program last year did not go to the poor.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, who heads the House Independent Bloc expressed alarm over reports that 30 percent of P19 billion of the P62 billion allocated for the dole-out initiative did not go to the intended beneficiaries.
“It should be looked into,” Belmonte said, adding that the supposed irregularities should not affect the implementation of the program.
For his part, Romualdez urged his colleagues to exercise their oversight function over the government’s spending of the CCT funds.
“Congress should step in and exercise its oversight powers over the CCT. We have to thoroughly review the CCT processes to ensure that
intended beneficiaries are benefitting from the program,” he said.
DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman has assured that they have put in place measures that will ensure that rightful beneficiaries receive assistance under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps.
Colmenares earlier feared that the CCT funds could be used as the administration “financial war chest” for the 2016 polls.
“The CCT had always been questionable because it is essentially legalized vote buying because it is a means to influence voters and not a means to alleviate poverty,” he said.
MANILA BULLETIN
