Butil solon belittles Aquino's conditional cash transfer program

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO - Butil Partylist Congressman Agapito Guanlao the other day under estimated the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program being implemented by the Aquino administration.  

"Huwag na po nating asahan ang conditional cash transfer. Ang kailangan po natin ay sustainable development," Guanlao told the fisherfolk from the province. 

He stressed that instead of spending huge amount of money for this program, the national government should better focus on livelihood projects. 

"Kailangan pondohan na lamang iyong mga livelihood projects dahil hindi naman kayang sustenahan  ang pagbibigay nito," Guanlao said.

CCT was first initiated in the country in 2008 a poor family was given a P500 monthly cash grant for health and nutrition needs, with another P300 per child for educational expenses.

Stipends were limited to three children, coming to a maximum subsidy of P1400 for each family per month

The aim is at increasing  the productivity of the poor by making  make their children more competitive in the job market when they grow up, and thus “break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.”

CCT already served some 700,000 families for the last two years.

Currently, President Benigno Aquino is planning to expand the program to cover at least 1.3 million families with the help of a  $400 million loan from the Asian Development Bank.