Urban poor group worries CCT after poverty drop in PH

One of the largest urban poor alliance in the Philippines, Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) said Social Welfare Sec. Corazon "Dinky" J. Soliman is mere sloganeering when she said that the drop of poverty incidence in the country is due to the Government's conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

Kadamay secretary-general Gloria Arellano in a statement said, the DSWD cannot deny the fact that there's an increase in the number of families that experienced involuntary hunger at the last quarter of 2011, as shown by the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

"Soliman's claim and blind reference to the CCT as behind the estimated decrease in poverty incidence is highly unfounded, and merely sloganeering," she said.

The urban poor leader also criticized the statement of Soliman saying that the latest hunger survey done by the SWS is not relevant when it comes on discussing poverty in the country.

Arellano explained that with the unabated oil price hikes during the quarter four of last year, which affected the prices of basic commodities, especially food, there is a very big possibility that the number of Filipinos who experienced involuntary hunger would spike, as the SWS shows.

In the said survey published last January 31, it shows that hunger incidence in the country had increased by one per cent—from 21.5 per cent during the third quarter of 2011, to 22.5 per cent in December. This means that 4.5 million families had had no food on their table, in the last three months of 2011.

Ironically, the same survey said that self-rated poverty had dropped significantly, from 52 per cent in September 2011, to 45 per cent in December.

While that is the case, the families suffered severe hunger had increased significantly, from 5.5 per cent in September to 8.0 per cent in December.

However, the urban poor leader sees the SWS survey, quite doubtful, if not erroneous.

She said, given the unabated oil price hikes during the fourth quarter, affecting the prices of basic commodities, the massive lay-offs among local workers and OFWs [overseas Filipino workers], and the past calamities that struck the country, particularly the huge portion of the Southern Philippines, one can doubt the veracity of the report that the number of poor Filipinos has really reduced significantly.

"Without knowing who among the SWS respondents are CCT beneficiaries, the government cannot account for a direct correlation between CCT and poverty incidence in the country, as it has neither offered sustainable poverty-alleviation programs such as domestic industries to generate permanent jobs and give its workers significant wage increase, nor has implemented a genuine agrarian reform program for the millions of landless farmers," she said.

"By not addressing the root problem of unequal land distribution among its citizens and the absence of domestic industries, the Aquino administration, in no time, will have to device an effective exit strategy from CCT for the millions of beneficiaries that it has turned into an army of mendicants," she said. - CBCP — ARA