MANILA, Philippines - Administration allies in the Senate on Wednesday deplored the latest report of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) which revealed that the percentage of Filipinos living below the poverty line has remained unchanged since 2006.
Senators Ralph Recto, chairman of the Senate committee on ways and means, said that with the latest NSCB report the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program is "not enough” to address the country's problem on poverty.
Recto there is a need to provide “more investments to educate the poor families so they can help themselves.” He also cited the need for the government to invest more in infrastructure and factories to create more jobs.
He said health care must be accessible and affordable to the poor as well.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has listed the government’s poverty reduction and empowerment of the poor and vulnerable program as among the highlights of the Aquino administration for 2013.
The CCT is also known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
In the summary report of the DBM about the 2013 budget, the agency recognized poverty “which brings about a sense of powerlessness”, causing frustration and despair among the poor.
“This vicious cycle has to end; thus, the government seeks to rescue the poor who are drowning in the morass of poverty through social protection packages, such as the CCT,” the DBM said in its briefer.
When the CCT program was first implemented under the Arroyo administration in 2007, there were 6,000 initial beneficiaries with P50-million budget. In 2008, there was P 1.27-billion budget for 337,416 beneficiaries; P6.61-billion for 777,505 beneficiaries in 2009; P10.93-billion for 999,432 beneficiaries in 2010; P21.19-billion for 2.3-million beneficiaries in 2011; and P39.45-billion for 3.1-million beneficiaries in 2012.
For 2013, the DBM said P44.26-billion budget has been allocated for 3.8-million beneficiaries of the program.
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Sen.Sergio Osmeña III, meanwhile, said that poverty has been a phenomenon not only this year but for over a decade. “Not only in our country but in many countries, even first world nation.”
Osmeña described the phenomenon as “jobless growth,” which he explained as when highly-skilled workers become more productive and earn raises in pay.
“The question is what to do to create more jobs? But that’s a long discussion, ask the trained economists,” Osmeña said in a text message to reporters.
For his part, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the poverty survey is validated during his visits to various neighborhoods in the National Capital Region.
“I can actually validate that survey result on poverty situation when I go around and see for myself poverty at its worst,” Lacson said.
He said he had seen a number of communities “very close to NCR, if not within NCR itself where one cannot imagine how the residents can last a day under the conditions they are in.”
