Gov’t scored for prioritizing program over flood victims

Thursday, December 29, 2011

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- A civil society group has deplored what it calls “a show of injustice” of the National Government for prioritizing over disaster victims the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program in its 2012 budget.

Prof. Marivic Requiza, co-convener of Social Watch Philippines, said at least 80 percent or P49.359 billion of the budget next year of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was allotted for the CCT program.

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"The remaining 20 percent of the budget or P9.914 billion of the DSWD, including assistance for victims of disasters and natural calamities, have to be split from the 2012 budget," Raquiza said.

In particular, she said, the budget for disaster victims, which is pegged at P48.043 million, is less than one-tenth of one percent of the total DSWD budget.

“The DSWD 2012 budget is evidence of a glaring injustice: CCT enjoys the lion's share of the DSWD budget while all other programs have to make do with what's left,” the group said in a statement.

"Ultimately, this only undermines the DSWD's support for other important segments of the poor such as persons with disabilities, senior citizens, individuals and families in especially difficult circumstances, victims of calamities and disasters, trafficked persons, among others," added Raquiza, an assistant professor at the National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), University of the Philippines-Diliman.

She lamented that the P48-million budget allotted for assistance to victims of calamities and disasters is way below the Alternative Budget Initiative’s (ABI) proposal of allotting at least one percent of DSWD budget for disaster victims or the equivalent of P493.59 million.

"Such meager budget undermined the capacity of government to mitigate the impact of destructive typhoons on the lives of the poor," she said.

The Social Watch Philippines, to which Raquiza is co-convener, has organized the ABI that recently released a scrutiny of the government's CCT program.

The ABI Social Protection Cluster is in quandary as to why there is no funding in the DSWD 2012 budget for the Juvenile Justice Act whose last funding was provided in 2010 when it got P80 million.

The ABI cluster also sought why the budget for the program for persons with disabilities and senior citizens dramatically decreased from P882 million in 2011 to P 21.185 million in 2012.

According to Raquiza, the ABI Social Protection Cluster had proposed a one percent increase of the agency budget for other programs that respond to the needs of specific sectors that received minimal assistance in the DSWD budget in the last few years, especially when compared with the dramatic budgetary increases for the 4Ps.

Overall, the ABI proposed a budget of P2.96154 billion, or P493.59 million for each of the following programs: assistance to victims of disasters and natural calamities; assistance to persons with disabilities and senior citizens; recovery and reintegration of trafficked persons; implementation of the Juvenile Justice Act (Republic Act 9344); Pamana Program for internally displaced persons' livelihood; and comprehensive project for street families and indigenous peoples.

"Other poor sectors of society who equally need assistance from the government are only provided minimal support by DSWD. This is evidenced by CCT's consistent and generous allocation while other programs get by with a fixed amount, one-time funding or minimal increases," she said.