SENATE President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto proposed Friday to enroll victims of Typhoon "Lando" into the government's conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.
Recto said typhoon victims, whom he called "people hit by the double whammy of poverty and disaster," needed long-term assistance.
He said his proposal is one of the best forms of aid to those hit by the typhoon because it is "regular, guaranteed, and sustained."
"The idea is to reserve a certain percentage of CCT beneficiaries in a year for disaster victims," the senator said, adding it had also been done in the past when the Senate funded 20,000 additional CCT slots for Typhoon Yolanda victims in the 2014 budget.
To give victims "multiple sources of help," Recto said the CCT for typhoon victims can be paired with other government relief programs like cash-for-work in the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure and seed and other forms of planting assistance.
Recto added that state colleges can also defer payment of tuition and other fees by students hit by a calamity.
"But the centerpiece should be the CCT for victims. Rebuilding is a long process because if there have been no relief operations, the victims carry the burden alone," he said.
The senator said "budget space" can be carved out of the proposed P3.002-trillion 2016 budget for CCT for Lando victims.
The Senate will tackle the 2016 budget in the middle of November.
For 2016, the proposed budget for CCT will reach P62.67 billion.
Of the amount, P59.3 billion will cover 4,402,253 million families under the regular CCT program while P3.3 billion will enroll 218,377 families under the modified CCT program.
A family under the regular CCT will have to send its children to school regularly and the mother, if pregnant, must receive regular check-up, to qualify for the monthly payout.
Under the modified CCT, meanwhile, are itinerant and homeless families and indigenous peoples.
"So you see, CCT is undergoing evolution. It is not static. So we can add a new category for disaster victims. Or we earmark, say two percent, of the annual ceiling, or about 90,000 slots, in reserve for typhoon victims," Recto said.
"With 20 typhoons barreling across the second most disaster-prone country in the world annually, those slots would be filled up," he added.
A total of 268, 877 families or 1,242,239 persons have been affected by the typhoon, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council had reported.
It added that the typhoon killed 46 people and left P7 billion damage to agriculture and infrastructure. (Sunnex)