Cash transfer program 'won't solve mass poverty' in RP

House Minority leader and Albay Representative Edcel Lagman criticized the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the Aquino administration in his counter-State of the Nation Address (Sona) Monday.

"How on earth can a maximum of P1,400 a month per family-beneficiary liberate more than a hundred thousand families from poverty every month?" Lagman questioned, as he stressed that the cash transfer program is merely a dole-out.

The CCT program under the Department of Social Welfare and Development will get an astounding 89 percent increase - from P23 to 39 billion even if the additional households only total to 700,000.

The opposition lawmaker said the additional funding for the CCT program should instead be realigned to livelihood support programs to generate rural family expenses, and health and education programs.

"The CCT is supposed to be only one component of the government's poverty alleviation program precisely because it is not a comprehensive approach to solving mass poverty. It is a mere analgesic, and painkillers are purely palliative. Moreover, whichever way you look at it, the CCT is not sustainable because it is a dole-out," Lagman said.

The minority leader was scheduled to deliver his counter-Sona last week, one day after Aquino's Sona but sessions were suspended due to inclement weather.

By Kathrina Alvarez