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THE
chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations
validated the contention of Budget Secretary Rolando
Andaya Jr. that Congress has preapproved the
government’s P4-billion fund release for subsidies to
the poor and other sectors.
“Subsidies to the poor as socioeconomic amelioration
measures are valid and authorized under the 2008 General
Appropriations Act [RA 9498],” said Lakas Rep. Edcel
Lagman of Albay in a statement.
Lagman
sustained the legality of the conditional cash transfers
for small electricity users, fertilizer discount
vouchers for farmers, scholarship grants to deserving
students and transport assistance for LPG engine
conversion of public utility vehicles (PUVs).
He said
the annual GAA enacted by Congress consists
traditionally of programmed appropriations and
unprogrammed funds.
He
explained that “unprogrammed funds are in the nature of
lump-sum contingency allocations or standby funds, the
utilization of which is anticipated and/or unexpected
and can be availed of when revenue collections exceed
the original revenue targets.”
Lagman
said the subsidies for the poor are necessitated by the
present global economic crunch and are funded from the
unprogrammed appropriations like, among others, “Support
to Infrastructure and Social Programs” provided for
under A.5 of XLIX of the GAA on “Unprogrammed Fund.” The
windfall value-added tax (VAT) collections as a result
of the increase in the price of oil justified the
release of funds under the unprogrammed fund for support
to social programs, he added.
Lagman
said the amounts to cover the subsidies were released to
the appropriate implementing agencies like the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD),
Department of Agriculture (DA), Commission on Higher
Education (CHED) and Department of Transportation and
Communications (DOTC). These have the proper existing
programs like Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino (DSWD), Ginintuang
Masaganang Ani (DA), Student Assistance Fund for
Education (CHED) and Special Vehicle Pollution Control
Fund (DOTC), whose respective allocations were
accordingly augmented.
Meanwhile, the cash doles to the poor could help prime
the economy, aside from mitigating poverty, according to
National Antipoverty Commission Secretary Domingo
Panganiban, as he defended the government’s programs
that provide cash and noncash subsidies and discounts on
prices of selected items, such as rice, canned goods,
noodles and lately, cooking oil.
These
programs include the food-for-work and school-for-work
programs, wherein qualified poor students are provided
with a kilo of free rice every day to encourage their
parents to send them to school; the P3.5-billion
PhilHealth cards distributed by the Department of Health
(DOH); the P2-billion Meralco lifeline users’ cash
subsidy; and the P5-billion conditional cash transfer of
P800 to couples with maximum children of three who
attend seminars on family planning. In addition, the
couple will also receive P300 for each child they send
to school. A total of 144,000 families will benefit
from the conditional cash transfer project.
So far,
a total of 185,000 families have received the P500 cash
subsidy by simply presenting their Meralco bill to Land
Bank branches nationwide after being validated by the
DSWD.
Aside
from Metro Manila, the program will soon cover the
poorest of the poor in the country’s 15 poorest
provinces. The National Food Authority (NFA) through its
Tindahan ni Gloria outlets is also selling cheap rice,
canned goods, noodles and cooking oil at discounted
prices.
Lately,
the NFA has limited the distribution of the NFA rice,
which only costs P18.25, and the NFA’s imported rice
from the US, which only costs P25, to those with access
cards. So far, Marikina and Pasay have issued a list of
beneficiaries under the program.
According to Panganiban, such programs were meant to
make food accessible to the poor during these trying
times, when prices are soaring. While it may not be
called sustainable, he said it will nevertheless help
prime the economy.
Panganiban said such cash subsidies, like the P500
subsidy to Meralco’s lifeline users whose monthly
consumption is below 100 kwh, help the poor cope with
high prices, thus allowing money to change hands. |
