TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE OF
SEN DRILON After DSWD budget hearing

Drilon: The questions revolved around on CCT. The budget for this year on CCT is P21,194,117,000 and in 2012, the budget for this program is P39.4 billion. Since this program was started in 2008, the total disbursed is P39.999 billion. By the end of 2012, the total disbursement should be approximately P79.4 billion. This program is from enrolment up to exit is 5 years. In other words, once an identified beneficiary is made part of the program, they will have 5 years in the program assuming they have complied with the conditionalities. By the end of 5 years they will exit. Right now the beneficiaries are placed at 2.3 million households and by the end of 2012, with an additional budget of P39.4 billion, the beneficiaries will reach up to 3 million households. This program is envisioned to last until 2020 and the total expected cost is P346.6 billion from 2008-2020. We must emphasize that this program is not strictly a poverty alleviation program. Generally the senators are satisfied with the way this program has been implemented. To quote Sen Angara, he says he is endorsing the CCT program because based on the initial assessment of the World Bank and SWS, it appears at this stage that the program is succeeding. In fact, complimenting Sec Soliman by saying 'you have done a wonderful job.' Sen Lacson likewise is in support of the program and in the assessment of Sen Lacson, the program is succeeding. In fact if you are to judge it on the basis of the assessment so far of various agencies, indeed there is a reason to be optimistic about the success of the program. There was an appraisal done by the UP College of Public Administration and Governance and it would appear, in a conference with regional and national fora of parent leaders, they have seen improvement of the participants in terms of their attitude, mindset and it certainly clarified the roles of various agencies in the program. The conclusion of UP-NCPAG is that the CCT is a bridge program towards poverty alleviation and not a program to eradicate poverty totally. It is principally a human resource development through health and educational assistance. We have to emphasize this because the impression is that this is a poverty alleviation program. It is not. It is principally a human resource development by addressing our health and education concerns. This is why this will cover children ages 0-14 which will number approximately 5 million children. The World Bank also had made its finding that after 3 years, the program has shown positive impact on the beneficiaries and the conditionalities have helped improve the education and health of the children. What is important, we must show for example that the net enrolment of children beneficiaries have risen. Why is it very important? Because a conditionality in the CCT is that the children must attend 85% of the school days in a month. Therefore if this is allowed, there should be a decline in the dropout rates. The DepEd statistics would show that for every 100 kids of school age who entered Grade 1, only 64 would go to Grade 4 or a dropout rate of about 36%. In other words, 36 children would drop out between Grade 1 and Grade 4. This is precisely what the CCT will address and this is where we gauge the success of the program whether or not in fact this dropout rate will decline after you exit from the program. I would repeat, a very concrete measurement is the decline in the dropout rates which today is almost 40% of Grade 1 pupils when you look at that number when they reach Grade 4. This program is designed among others to precisely address that very serious drop in enrolment and by requiring that 85% attendance then hopefully that would see a decline in the dropout rate. This is a concrete program and data that we would like to see. The SWS assessment I think after November will show us this finding... because the quantitative assessment is that indeed the 95% of the children 6-11 years and 94% of those 12-14 years old fulfill the school attendance requirement. In other words they fulfill the 85% minimum school attendance requirement. 84% of the children between age 0-6 years old go to monthly checkup and 83% immunization rate for children 3 years and below. These are the concrete data that we would like to see from the DSWD as a basis for our continuously appropriating funds for this very substantial project. So far after 2 years of this administration, we can see in our assessment that at least there are initial successes but the jury is still out, so to speak, and we will see, maybe at the end of next year, how far we have gone insofar as achieving the purposes of this program is concerned.

Q: Wala na bang nakakalusot ng ghost beneficiaries or hindi qualified beneficiaries?

Soliman: I don't recall having ghost beneficiaries but inclusion error types na napasama na hindi dapat nagbebenepisyo... naglilinis kami at we have removed 155,900. Sigurado kami na ang mga narehistro ngayong 2011, wala nang naitama na hindi dapat nakatanggap. Set 4 ang tawag naming sa kanila. Yung Sets 1-3 doon po kami naglilinis. Sa aking pagtingin, malaki na ang nabawas kasi nga 155,900 ang naalis na sa listahan and we still have 2.2 million households right now. (2.3 million beneficiaries) minus 155,900, mayroon pa kaming 2.2 million households na nakarehistro sa ngayon.

Drilon: 155,900 as a percentage of 2.3 million is very insignificant. What is important is that the mechanism is in place. Nakikita natin, nahuhuli natin yung hindi dapat nandoon.

Q: May timeline kayo sa paglilinis ng listahan?

Soliman: Tuloy-tuloy kasi we have the grievance redress system. Yung grievance redress, kapag may reklamo ka, pwede kang magtext, yung 0918-912-2813 and/or pwede kang magreklamo sa MSWDO or sa NGO o sa aming opisina. Yung pagwawasto tuloy-tuloy kasi hindi maiiwasan na meron at merong magrereklamo. Ang aming turnaround time ay isang buwan bago mabalik namin sa nagreklamo kung ano ang nangyari.

Q: Your comment sa suggestion ni JPE na mag provide na lang ng trabaho kaysa doleout

Soliman: We do have, as part of our exit strategy, a provision for sustainable livelihood because we recognize that to break inter generational poverty, it's a two-step process: one, as Sen Frank Drilon has emphasized, we must invest in children. Keep them in school and keep them healthy. Now, to sustain keeping them in school and keeping them healthy, meron tayong sustainable livelihood intervention na enhancement sa design na aming nadatnan at yung aming isinasagawa ay yung pagdevelop ng entrepreneurial capacities through the self-employment assistance program or kung mas ang killing nila ay magkaroon ng trabaho, yung linking with government agencies such as DPWH for road maintenance, they already hired 2,155 na members ng Pantawid Pamilya; sa DA, production units ang tawag namin doon, sa projects ng DA nagtatrabaho ang isang member ng Pantawid Pamilya; at DENR, what we are calling environment cash transfer na sila naman yung nagtatanim at nag-aalaga ng seedlings. Ito naman ang trabaho na binabayaran ng mga ahensiyang yon. Hindi kami ang gumagastos. Pero ang nangyayari, binubuksan namin ang merkado ng lakas-paggawa or we're opening up the job markets for them. Hopefully they get to be part of the working teams because they perform well.

Q: Some members of the House want to realign P10 billion from CCT budget

Drilon: That's always their privilege. This is a bicameral legislature and at this point, the position of the chair is that we will support the CCT program of the DSWD. At least 2 other senators have expressed the same view--Sen Lacson and Sen Angara. Firstly, we do not know yet if the view of the congressmen you mentioned ay yan din ang desisyon ng buong Kamara. Ngunit sa amin dito, kami ay susuporta sa budget ng CCT.

Q: Sa CCT, per household magkano ang matatanggap?

Soliman: P13,000 pero kasama na doon ang implementation cost. That's P39 billion divided by 3 million. For every family, it's P300 per child up to 3 children, and P500 para sa mother.

Drilon: So it's P1,400 per month. Assuming that they comply with all the conditionalities, it's P1,400 times 12, yun ang annual.

Q: Yung 155,900 na natanggal, ibig sabihin makakatipid tayo? Bakit mas malaki pa ang budget natin ngayon?

Soliman: Yung 155,900 inalis yun. Pero tuloy-tuloy ang registration. Right now, we are at 2,230,000. By the end of this month, this Friday, we would reach 2.3 million. Yung 155,900 labas yung doon sa 2.3 million.

Q: Yung 155,900, paano sila nakalusot? Meron bang charges na haharapin?

Soliman: Two things, syempre nung nag rollout, maraming imperfection yung sistema kasi bago. Pangalawa, yung mga nag-enumarate ng unang gumawa ng listahan, alam nilang may benepisyo, may pinasok silang mga pangalan ng kaibigan o kamag-anak. Pangatlo, may mga ilang lugar na inimpluwensyahan ng local na pamahalaan yung enumerator. Kasi yung enumerator hindi tao ng local na pamahalaan o ng probinsya, hinire ng DSWD. Pero syempre kung nandun ka sa lugar, medyo matapang yung mga local na opisyal na nadun, barangay o municipal mayors, yung ilan ay natakot at nagpasok ng mga pangalan na pinapapasok. So yun ang ilang mga dahilan. Yun yung mga naalis na pangalan.

Q: Ano ang ginagawa niyo pag may pinapasok ang local officials? Parang may favoritism

Soliman: Una, itong aming grievance redress system, through text ay inaalis natin. Yan ay nangyari sa Sets 1-3. For Set 4, sa ngayon pinapaliwanag namin na hindi talaga pwedeng magpasok ng pangalan kung hindi talaga validated from the list of the National Household Targetting System. Kung halimbawa wala nga sa listahan at tunay na mahirap dahil tinitignan din namin ang kondisyon, meron kaming indicators, at kung nagpapakita kung sila ay tunay na mahirap at may 0-14 years old na anak, pinapasok namin yon. Ang tawag don on-demand application. Pero hindi yan listahan ng kahit sino. Pwedeng may mag suggest pero kailangang i-validate kung talagang kailangan ang programa.

Drilon: Ang importante nating bigyan ng diin na doon sa nakita nating 155,900, yan ay 6.7% lamang ng 2.3 million intended beneficiaries. Hindi naman rampant. Number 2, the important thing to look at is ito ay may mekanismo kaya nahuhuli itong 155,900. Kung walang mekanismo eh di nakalusot ito at pwedeng sabihin na 100%. But the fact is the system exposed 155,900 claimants who are disqualified as beneficiaries. They were not actually able, if ever, to get these funds, or kung meron man, insignificant. Let's put it in proper context.

Q: Are you confident na hindi mahihirapang makalusot ang CCT sa plenary?

Drilon: We can defend it. We can defend this budget.

Q: Updates on Pedring

Soliman: As of 6 am, we have a total of 40,699 families affected and this covers NCR, Regions 1, 2, 3, 4A, 4B and 5. 25 provinces. As of that time, there are 190 evacuation centers out of 232 evacuation centers that were setup. So far ang cost of assistance ay P2,857,096--of that P1,550,000 comes from DSWD-national and P1,306,000 comes from different LGUs.

Q: Reaction sa sinabi ni US Ambassador Thomas na 40% ng mga turistang pumupunta sa Pilipinas ang habol ay sex

Drilon: We dispute that statement. I certainly have not been shown the basis of that data. We challenge the correctness of that. What is important to note is that the national government, through its pertinent agencies, are very serious in our anti-trafficking law implementation. In fact the DSWD has a budget on that.

Q: Ang sabi ni Sen Lacson, kung walang basehan ang sinabi ni Amb Thomas ay he should pack up and go back to the US

Drilon: I won't go to that extent.

Soliman: Just on trafficking, we are part of the inter-agency council against trafficking. We have been removed from Tier 2 watchlist because of the prosecutions that have more than doubled this year. We continue to work closely with DoJ, NBI, Bureau of Immigration in preventing... so detection ang aming pinakamalaking effort by having a composite team in the Diosdado Macapagal Intl Airport and the NAIA. 24/7 kaming nandun. Nagse-setup na rin kami ng composite team in Zamboanga City. I would say that in Zamboanga City, that is where the prosecutor who is commended for having the most number of prosecution since we've started working against trafficking.