ShareThisPASAY CITY -– The Senate will not only scrutinize the mechanics on how the P21 billion will be distributed under the government’s anti-poverty conditional cash transfer (CCT) program but it is also intends to reduce the budget to ‘manageable’ P15 billion.
Senate finance committee vice chairman Sen. Edgardo Angara revealed this plan a day after the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading the P1.645 trillion budget for 2011 with the controversial P21 billion CCT program intact.
”That’s a lot of money. They might not be able to digest that P21 billion. That’s more than 100 percent increase over the current P10 billion. The amount should be manageable,” Angara said in media interview.
Angara is proposing to distribute the P6 billion cut from CCT program to research and developments of the selected state universities and collegues (SUCs), agriculture, health and other research institutions under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
”We should strengthen the R&D capability because it will sustain growth and it will give innovation and change to our country. So, that’s my target P6 billion for realignment to research and development,” Angara, an advocate of R&D programs being a former president of the University of the Philippines, said.
Angara also believes that the distribution of the budget should not be handled by one department alone, referring to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) but should be in coordination with the education and health departments.
”The CCT is an education innovation. Because of that, you should involve DepEd and DOH because if DSWD only, the people might think it is charity or dole out which is a dangerous thought to inject to our society,” Angara explained.
Angara further said that without the DepEd and DOH participation, the DSWD will have hard time to manage the CCT funds due to the size and scope of the program.