The Senate on Monday asked the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to explain in writing how it plans to implement the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, whose budget the Aquino administration increased by 75 percent in its bid to alleviate poverty. Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., a member of the Senate finance committee, said that the government gave the CCT P21 billion under the 2011 budget or P9 billion more from P12 billion this year. The CCT is supposed to give 2.3 million poor families a monthly stipend of up to P1,400. The program is part of the P29.2-billion Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps of the DSWD. Senator Franklin Drilon, head of the Senate committee on finance, said that the senators are “generally supportive” of the program, but that they need to make sure there is proper monitoring given the amount of public funds devoted to it. “Given the magnitude of the program, we (have) to examine it closely,” he told reporters in an interview after the Senate budget hearing Monday. Drilon said that they have asked the DSWD to submit a paper on how they intend to identify the beneficiaries; how they plan to implement the program; and how they intend to monitor its progress. Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, who was present during the hearing, said that the department would submit the paper within two days.
