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INSTEAD
of giving dole-outs to poor families, the government
should course cash gifts to nongovernment organizations
(NGOs) who provide services to the underprivileged, said
Caritas Manila, the charity arm of the Archdiocese of
Manila.
“Marami
naman diyang iba na pwedeng makatulong sa gobyerno na
tulungan ang ating mga kababayan by having been
successful in their own [systems] one way or another,”
said the Caritas head, Fr. Anton Pascual.
Pascual
did not identify particular NGOs but added these groups
are more experienced in dealing with poor communities
and know their needs.
Caritas
earlier criticized the social welfare department’s
program to provide cash gifts to poor families amounting
to P500 monthly and P300 for every child sent to school
to alleviate poverty in the 20 poorest provinces in the
country.
Pascual
said while the program may have good intentions, the
strategy was wrong because it might deepen a culture of
dependency instead of self-sufficiency.
Instead
of giving cash gifts, the Caritas chief suggested that
the government provide poor communities with livelihood
to enable people to toil for their money.
“Mas
okay kung tuturuan natin ang mga tao na maging
self-sufficient kaysa iyong may inaasahan lang sila.
Filipinos are not lazy. They just do not have the
proper education on what is the right thing to do to
develop, as well as the opportunity to do so,” Pascual
added.
The
United Opposition (Uno) on Monday tagged the P5-billion
aid program for poor families of the administration as
“another publicity gimmick.”
Uno also
echoed the position of the Roman Catholic Church and
civic groups that the fight against poverty would
require “an honest to goodness campaign against graft
and corruption in government and not mere politically
motivated dole-outs.”
Instead,
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, Uno president, said the
government should provide jobs and efficient social
services to the poor and take strong steps to prevent
further increases in the prices of basic commodities
such as rice and other food items.
“What
President Arroyo must do is provide good governance that
will give better social services to the poor and job
opportunities to the unemployed. This can only be
achieved by eradicating graft and corruption in this
government.”
Lawyer
Adel Tamano, Uno spokesman, said, “The P5 billion
government aid program is good primarily as a
public-relations tool,” adding that “what Malacañang
failed to acknowledge is that the poverty and food
crisis were caused by officials’ corruption and
misgovernance.”
For his
part, San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito, Uno National Capital
Region chairman, deplored the apparent lack of
transparency and accountability in the implementation of
the P5-billion aid program.
Ejercito
warned that “the poor track record of the administration
in resisting graft and corruption tells us that this
would only be another huge waste of government
resources.”
Social
Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said Malacañang had
allocated P5 billion this year to fund a P500 monthly
stipend for each of the country’s poorest families to
help them cope with the escalating prices of basic
necessities.
Under
the Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino (APP) program, a family will
get an additional P300 for every child who logs at least
85 percent class attendance in a month.
At most,
three children per family could avail themselves of the
stipend. But owing to budget constraints, the five-year
APP program could cover only 300,000 families in the 20
poorest provinces, or 7 percent of the 4.7 million poor
households in the country. (With C. Mocon and
E. Dimaculangan) |
