Delayed use of access cards led to NFA losses, says DSWD
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/22/2008 1:01 PM
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The country's social welfare chief on Saturday said the delayed implementation of family access cards that would limit the sale of government-subsidized rice to poor families allowed rich families to take advantage of the government's subsidy program.
Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the government distributed family access cards to thousands of poor families in July but it was only recently that the National Food Authority announced that it would be used in Tindahan Natin outlets effective December 1.
"We finished giving out the cards in July. We agreed that it would be implemented end of July but it was postponed to end of August and then end-September and now, December," Cabral told radio dzMM.
"I feel sorry for the NFA. They are being investigated for the tremendous losses of government due to rice subsidies. Those who are investigating the NFA are also angry because NFA does not have enough supply for their constituents."
The NFA earlier said only the beneficiaries listed in the Rice Allocation Ledger (RAL) in the provinces and those with family access cards in Metro Manila can buy NFA rice for P18.25 per kilogram.
The announcement came after a World Bank study revealed that 40 percent of funds intended for the Philippine government's rice subsidy and food-for-school programs did not reach the poor.
The WB study found that in 2006 only 31 percent of all the NFA rice went to the poorest sectors while as much as 41 percent ended up in non-poor households. The top two richest income groups consumed some 16 percent of the NFA rice, the study said.
The study said "design weaknesses, mis-targeting, and significant leakage to the non-poor" in the subsidy programs have compromised the efforts of the government to protect the poor through social protection schemes.
The study estimated that the cost of this subsidy program could possibly be as high as P60.9 billion in 2008. “Evidence shows that it is not well-targeted to the poor,” the WB report said.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap earlier said the government took time in limiting the sale of government rice "to give local government units floating time" to come up with a list of families qualified for family access cards and submit these lists to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Cabral admitted that many rich families bought government-subsidized rice at the height of the rice price crisis early this year because there were no restrictions in the sale of the NFA rice.
She said the DSWD also had to cut down the list of potential beneficiaries for the conditional cash-transfer program, dubbed the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program" (4P), from the proposed 700,000 families to 320,000 families nationwide. She said the DSWD whittled down the list after many families failed to qualify under the department's criteria for the subsidy program.
"Because supply is limited, we really have to limit the program to the poorest of the poor," she said.
4P, launced in February 2008, is an expansion of an existing subsidy program called “Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino,” which aims to arrest the decreasing participation rate of Filipino students aged 6-14. With its additional P5 billion funds from the government, it aimed to provide cash grants to 321,000 poorest households in 2008.
One of the major components of 4P is the Food-for-School program, where P500 is given monthly to households for health and nutrition while P300 is allotted for each child who is studying, with a maximum number of three students in each family. Mothers usually have access to the money, which they get from the bank through ATM cards.
