Senate panel OKs P44-B budget for CCT program

 

"We are endorsing the budget of the DSWD to the Senate in plenary," Senate finance panel chairman Senator Franklin Drilon said after the day's hearing on the budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

 

Of the DSWD's P55.975-billion proposed budget for next year, P44.255 billion was allocated for the CCT program. For this year, the budget for the CCT is P39 billion.

 

The CCT is part of the department's Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) which gives conditional monthly stipends of up to P1,400 to the poorest families nationwide.

 

CCT beneficiaries are required to do three things: make sure that their children go to school 85 percent of the time; make sure that their children are immunized; and mothers undergo prenatal and maternal health care. CCT enrollees 

 

During Tuesday's hearing, DSWD Undersecretary Alicia Bala said that as of July 25, 2012, 3,041,152 households have been enrolled into the program. She also said that 7,471,816 children aged 0-14 are covered by it.

 

She said the program aims to enroll almost 800,000 more families by next year.

 

Citing the initial findings of a survey conducted last year by the Social Weather Station (SWS) and commissioned by the World Bank (WB), she said that the CCT was producing positive results.  

 

The sample was taken from 3,742 households in eight munipalities in four provinces: Lanao del Norte, Negros Oriental, Occidental Mindoro, and Mountain Province. The survey, however, only covers the first set of CCT beneficiaries.

 

"I would like to quote Ms. Junko Onishi, the monitoring and evaluation specialist of the World...that the Pantawid Pamilya is having strong and consistently positive impact on households in the program based on the key indicators used in the preliminary findings of the impact evaluation," she said.

 

Bala specifically said that because of the program, more children stay in school with a better chance of graduating from grade school.  

 

She said there was a 10 percent difference between indigent households covered by the CCT and those who aren't in terms of enrollment in daycare and preschool. On the other hand, enrollment in elementary is 5 percent higher in CCT households.

 

She likewise said that the CCT beneficiaries spend 36 percent more for education and 33 percent more for health than those who are not covered by the program. Angara opposition

 

But Sen. Edgardo Angara, chair of the Senate education committee, doubted the suppposed increase in enrollees.

 

"These reults do not seem to coincide with the findings on nutrition and attendance because attendance has been going down. In fact it may not be captured yet by your program and [mal]nutrition is on the rise rather than on the decline," he said.

 

"I think we ought to correlate this with the school statistics which I think are largely based on the census on the statistical census para naman may credibility itong kuwan natin," he added.

 

Bala said this will be part of the final analysis of the findings, which she said will be completed by the end of the year.

 

Angara, however, said that the initial findings should already be "reflective" of what's happening all over the country.

 

"It should already capture at least in those areas...that there [is] improvement in the attendance and maternal consultation," he said.

 

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, for his part, asked whether it was "worth for the nation to be continue the program in light of these findings."

 

"Based on these initial findings I think this is worth it," replied Bala.

 

In an interview with reporters after the hearing, Enrile said that they will still assess the program when the DSWD's budget reaches the plenary.

 

Drilon, in a separate interview, admitted that the CCT was not a perfect program but that it doesn't mean it wasn't effective.

 

He explained that the number of complaints is "minutely insignificant" compared to the number of those who have benefitted from the program. 

 

He likewise said he was confident with the initial findings regarding the positive effects of the CCT, saying the SWS and WB would not "monkey around" with their data.

 

"The WB will be very objective because they practically funded this program," he said.

 

During the hearing, Bala said that the WB had committed $400 million for the CCT program for a period of five years. — RSJ, GMA News