Senators grill DSWD’s Soliman on CCT beneficiaries
Senators on Wednesday scrutinized anew the Aquino administration's conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, focusing on how the beneficiaries who receive monthly stipends are selected. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senators Panfilo Lacson and Loren Legarda asked Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman during Wednesday's Senate finance committee hearing how the beneficiaries to the program were chosen. Monthly stipends of up to P1,400 are given to the poorest families under the program. It is part of DSWD's Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps. "How are you selecting the beneficiaries? What is the criterion used to select the municipalities to be included? If this really is program for the poor, we should start with the poorest," said Enrile. Senator Franklin Drilon, chair of the Senate finance committee, asked Soliman to provide a list of areas where the beneficiary families are located as a way of knowing whether they really are poor. Soliman said her department will submit the list, noting that the beneficiaries were selected based on a reliable survey by the national government. Compliance with requirements Apart from the selection process, Lacson asked whether the DSWD is able to monitor the beneficiariesâ compliance with the program's requirements. As of September 2011, the DSWD said 2.23 million households were registered to the CCT. "I will not argue that the CCT program... is succeeding, but there are some issues and concerns, (which are) valid, that should be addressed," said Lacson. CCT beneficiaries are required to comply with three things:
- Children must go to school 85 percent of the time
- Children must be immunized
- Moreover, mothers must undergo prenatal and maternal health care check ups.