Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño and retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz yesterday branded as “degrading to human dignity” the administration’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.
Casiño told the weekly Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) forum that the CCT had been utterly useless in addressing poverty and hunger and it was not what the Filipino people want to improve their lives.
“It is degrading to human dignity. Most of all the people we have talked to about it tell us that they prefer jobs and livelihood opportunities over the CCT. They do not like this dole-out,” he said.
Casiño claimed that the CCT had not made a dent in the poverty level in the country. He said the government made it look like poverty was reduced in the past year when all it did was to lower the threshold of daily needs to only P46 per person per day from P52 during the previous administration.
“That’s pure deception, that is misleading the public. They are doing a camouflage of the real state of the people,” Cruz said.
He also bared that in a province he went to, he was told that beneficiaries of the CCT were being made to sign a receipt form that they received a certain amount when what they get was much lower.
“When I asked them why they allow that to happen, they just tell me it was better than nothing. That is unacceptable,” Cruz said.
The Commission on Audit had found that the CCT beneficiaries included property owners, government employees and even drug addicts and gamblers.
Casiño further bared that during budget deliberations on the CCT, Department of Social Welfare and Development officials said the CCT was not intended for job generation or hunger reduction but merely to make sure kids go to school and mothers undergo regular checkups.
“If those are the only purposes of the CCT, why don’t we just improve the education and the healthcare system so that every one benefits from it?” he asked.