Malacañang on Saturday rejected fresh calls by groups to scrap the controversial Conditional Cash Transfer program so part of its P45-billion budget can be used to subsidize farm-gate prices of unmilled rice.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said millions of Filipino families will be affected if the government were to scrap the CCT funding.
“Kung tatanggalin mo yan paano ang mga milyun-milyong pamilyang umaasa sa tulong ng CCT at milyong pamilya na bumubuti ang buhay dahil natulungan ng CCT," she said on government-run dzRB radio.
Earlier, groups called for the scrapping of the CCT, saying P10 billion from its P45-billion budget for 2013 can be used to subsidize farm-gate rice prices and benefit two million farmers.
A report on Manila Standard Today quoted Abono chairman and Swine Development Council head Rosendo So as saying farmers are threatening to skip planting rice this season “as a result of the oversupply of imported and smuggled rice.”
Moreover, Mr. So said two million farmers also want to be recipients of the government dole out to the poor, and that each of them be given P5,000 subsidy per hectare or P10,000 for two hectares.
The report said the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas, the Anakpawis party-list group, the Save Laguna Lake Movement, and the Koalisyon Kontra Kumbersyon ng Manila Bay also called for a stop to the CCT because it was not working. — LBG, GMA News
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