Conditional Cash Transfer ate up most of DSWD budget, claims Social Watch Philippines

Interaksyon.com, citing Social Watch Philippines, reports that the "huge amount allotted for the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program has left the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) with meager budget to aid victims in times of disasters."

The report noted: "For 2012, DSWD appropriations show that 80 percent of the agency’s P49.359 billion programs budget has been allotted to the CCT program, while all other programs have to split the remaining 20 percent or P9.914 billion, including assistance for victims of disasters and natural calamities."

Interaksyon.com also quoted Prof. Marivic Raquiza, co-convenor of the citizen watchdog that  organized the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI). She pointed out that "the budget for disaster victims, amounting to P48.043 million is less than one-tenth of one percent of the total budget of the department."

Raquiza went on to point out that "only a small budget was allotted for disaster victims from the DSWD budget despite the onslaught of typhoons in the country every year." "Such meager budget undermined the capacity of government to mitigate the impact of destructive typhoons on the lives of the poor," she said.

Raquiza added that because the CCT enjoys most of the DWD's budget, "all other programs of the department have to make do with what’s left in the budget, such as support for other important segments of the poor such as Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), senior citizens (SC), individuals and families in especially difficult circumstances (EDCs), victims of calamities and disasters, trafficked persons, among others."