Surveys by the country’s top polling agencies and a statement by Cebu City’s Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) that cash aid remains a vital factor in determining voter support have presidential and local candidates scrambling to make statements reiterating their commitment to continuing doleouts, a reality that governments and politicians should not foolishly ignore.
It’s this reality that Vice President Jejomar Binay is playing up as he vowed not only to continue but also to expand the existing 4Ps cash program to the poor who have been propping his survey numbers as of late.
Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas isn’t about to go back on that program since his chief supporter, President Benigno Aquino III, has continued it after his unlamented predecessor conceived of it based on the doleout programs of Brazil and Mexico.
In line with this, other disadvantaged sectors like the elderly, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and single parents have been pressing the national and local governments to come out with better aid programs for them.
And LGUs like Cebu City have responded by increasing the cash aid to PWDs, though with stricter guidelines to ensure that this boon isn’t abused by those who are related to or are guardians of the supposed beneficiaries.
It is a testament to the government’s continuing failure and struggle to expand and extend the benefits of economic growth to the greater number of Filipinos that we find ourselves having to fund more cash aid doleouts to satisfy the masses, that larger portion of the population that have yet to find ways and means to support themselves.
Though the candidates can easily list their number of priority programs at the drop of the hat, asking them how they plan to achieve these is another thing. To avoid being grilled further and not expose their plain ignorance and lack of expertise, they simply answer that they will funnel more funds, i.e. throw money at the problem of poverty and hope for the best that it will just go away.
That’s basically what the 4Ps cash doleout program appears to be at the outset — the government giving money to the poor though it is clothed with guidelines like requiring their children to go to school and their mothers to undergo health care seminars.
But we hope the next administration expands not just the reach and the amount of funding for the cash doleout — officially known as conditional cash transfer — but also to find ways to encourage beneficiaries to get out of their dependence and avail instead of capability-building and livelihood opportunities in order to support themselves.
There will be the poor and the elderly to support, but the government need only help those who can and are willing to help themselves overcome their poverty and make their lives better.
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