‘Welfare funds not reaching beneficiaries’

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BARLIG, Mountain Province -- A former vice mayor of this town was so pissed off that his name and others were not included in the government’s social pension program that he left the distribution center last week and returned tipsy lambasting Welfare workers in English.

Under the program senior citizens who are receiving SSS or GSIS pension are reportedly not entitled to DSWD special pension worth P500 per month. Actually, Welfare workers delisted the names of some Barlig senior citizens when they found out they were receiving SSS and GSIS pensions.

The delisted elderlies reportedly complained that they should have been included in the DSWD pension, so Welfare workers explained that rules are rules and they had to implement this.

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Later, Welfare workers went to Natonin, an adjacent town to distribute cash to seniors. One related they were in a hotel computing money to be disbursed. The manager of the hotel was reportedly talking so loud in an adjacent table that they had to tell him to lower his voice as they were being disturbed.

The manager and a companion were drinking liquor and this infuriated him prompting him to make remarks the Welfare workers were just  poor people otherwise they would not have been in the most remote town of Mt. Province.

According to folks, the guy, a closet queen, was reportedly a peacock with a P6,000 monthly salary who thought highly of himself that he often got into trouble with visitors and local folks.

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What the character didn’t know was that the DSWD workers had decent wages and were actually carrying cash worth millions of pesos with them at that time for distribution to beneficiaries.Enough of this peacock as government workers have to contend with their likes everywhere in this Banana Republic.

Anyway, the DSWD reportedly hired a Fortuner SUV to ferry the workers and the money. The services of the vehicle may have been acquired through bidding but, insiders said since the DSWD had other vehicles, it was a waste of money to hire the Fortuner.

Some were reportedly of the opinion that it was better to hire private vehicles at the last minute for security reasons during cash distribution occasions.

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According to our neighborhood perennially drunk philosopher during one of our roadside conversations, there could be some security gaps in this kind of practice as bad eggs within the DSWD itself could actually rig a holdup using outsiders. Shouldn’t social pension funds be given in checks so beneficiaries could be properly accounted for? He posed this question saying this will lessen security problems in transport of millions of pesos in cash.

Before the new regional director assumed office, there have been news of beneficiaries in the Cordillera like Baguio City who were actually rich but were recipients of the DSWD’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme. Beneficiaries should be poor, according to Welfare workers, so they can avail of the social fund. Was this connected to the transfer or “promotion” of the previous director?

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Anyway it is a welcome development that Sen.Chiz Escudero asked the DSWD to strengthen its screening procedure for recipients of the scheme and step up the process of weeding out spurious names from the list of deserving beneficiaries under the government’s flagship poverty alleviation program.

 Escudero put to task the DSWD following reports quoting a study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which showed that one-third of the P62 billion allocated for the CCT program last year did not go to the poor.

Since the centerpiece poverty reduction program was put in place by the DSWD, only a small fraction has been delisted while the weeding out process has been slow, Escudero noted in a press statement e-mailed by his office to the Northern Philippine Times.

 “They have delisted less than five percent since the program began,” Escudero said. “While the weeding out process is ongoing, it is too slow given the magnitude.”

 He added: “We are throwing away money to those who do not need or deserve it to the exclusion of those who might or other worthwhile endeavors that also need funding and fiscal space.”

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 According to Escudero, it was alarming to know that about 30 percent, or P19 billion, of money allocated for the monthly cash doleouts did not go to the intended beneficiaries.“That is quite alarming because we are talking about P19 billion in government funds meant for poor families. This is another injustice to the poorest of the poor who are the target beneficiaries of the poverty reduction program,” the lawmaker said.

 The senator said it was the DSWD’s job to ensure that funds earmarked for the program, officially known as Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, will go only to the most vulnerable sectors.

 “If the funds fail to reach the intended recipients, then it defeats the purpose of the program which is to provide social protection for and directly assist the poorest members of society,” Escudero said.

The program provides cash grants to targeted poor Filipino families based on sustained, verified compliance with certain health and education conditions. Such conditions include sending children to school, ensuring they receive regular checkups, and participating in family planning and nutrition.

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Under the cash assistance program implemented by the DSWD, each identified poor family receives a monthly stipend of up to P1,400, or a total of P15,000 every year for five years, on condition that it sends children to school and clinics for vaccination, among others.

The program was patterned after the conditional cash transfer schemes in Latin America and African countries, which have lifted millions of people around the world