VIENTIANE”•Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo on Friday defended her decision to provide rice aside from money to the poorest of the poor following criticism from lawmakers.
“There is an average of 1,500 pesos per month, and on top of that there are 20 kilos of rice per household that will be given by the government [under its conditional cash transfer program],” Taguiwalo said in an interview.
“This is to ensure that the beneficiaries will be able to send their children to school as long as they are enrolled within the 4Ps program.”
The Duterte administration has already earmarked an additional P23.4 billion for the rice subsidy program for 4Ps beneficiaries next year on top of the P49.4-billion budget for the CCT for 2017.
The funds are lodged under the P130-billion proposed budget requested by the Department of Social Welfare and Development next year.
Several lawmakers had earlier proposed to remove the rice subsidies promised by President Rodrigo Duterte as an addition to the monthly stipend received by the 4Ps beneficiaries, saying the additional grant could be used to send more children to school or for medical checkups.
Taguiwalo said her department was now formulating a mechanism to clean up the list of dole recipients with a nationwide evaluation coming up “to see who should be included and excluded” from the program.
Earlier, she allayed the fears of beneficiaries who had been identified to have improved their income that they would continue to receive their regular cash grants.
Her department earlier found out that more than 1.3 million out of the 4.4 million 4Ps beneficiaries had transitioned to non-poor status.
The department will still have to validate this figure by meeting with the families. Further assessment will be undertaken to ensure that appropriate interventions will be developed to sustain their improved status.