Doubts over targets justify CCT probe

We support calls for an investigation into the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program and hope that this leads to a rigorous evaluation of its efficiency. The calls not only came from critics of the Aquino Administration, but also from its political allies. For instance, House Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr. was quoted in the media as saying that allegations of misappropriations must be checked.

Belmonte, along with other lawmakers, was reacting to a recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) report that said 30 percent of the CCT funds did not fall into the hands of the intended beneficiaries. The lender later clarified that the problem referred to was based on a recent report by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) involving 2012 data, and that since then, the government has cleaned up its list of beneficiaries. On Friday, the Palace’s Official Gazette quoted Richard Bolt, ADB’s Philippine country director, as saying: “As such, we are confident that the issue raised is no longer the case in the ongoing conditional cash transfer program.”