Neda not too keen on proposed hike in unconditional cash assistance to poor

The National Economic and Development Authority was cold to a legislator’s pitch to jack up the cash assistance given by the government under the Unconditional Cash Transfer program to poor families affected by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act.

“It’s kind of a quantum leap. It could be difficult [to implement],” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda chief Ernesto M. Pernia told reporters last week when asked if they were amenable to 1-Pacman Party-List Rep. Michael L. Romero’s proposal to increase the cash transfers to P500 a month from P200 this year and P300 in 2019 and 2020.

Neda Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon said “the more robust solution is to increase production, increase production capacity.”
“If you intervene on the side of the cash transfers, then we will miss out on initiating what is supposed to be the robust medium- and long-term solutions,” Edillon said.
“We have an immediate stop-gap, but at the same time, we’ll put in the measures that are necessary for more robust expansion of capacity and expansion of production,” Edillon added.

“That is why we are using the additional revenues from TRAIN for the ‘Build, Build, Build’ [infrastructure program] and human capital investments,” she said.

Last month, Romero said in a statement that “P500 [a month] is the figure I chose because it would be enough to absorb the effects of a 4- to 5-percent inflation, peso depreciation of 10 percent vis-a-vis the US dollar, elevated world crude oil prices, and help poor families eat three square meals a day.”

“Some P26.4 billion is needed so these families can have their three meals a day. This amount is not even 1 percent of the P3.6-trillion national budget,” Romero had said.

According to Romero, hiking the unconditional cash transfers would “benefit about four million families or 22 million poor Filipinos—15 million of whom are children.”

In a separate forum last Friday, Edillon said 80 percent of the unconditional transfer allocation worth P2,400 per family this year under the TRAIN Law were already distributed. —BEN O. DE VERA