By David Cagahastian

Malacañang justified the Aquino administration’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program anew on Monday amid criticism by the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) that President Aquino is the “biggest loan addict” since 1986 and a recently approved $450-million (about P21-billion) loan from the World Bank to sustain the CCT Program in the next four years.

Last week the World Bank’s board of executive directors approved the Social Welfare Development and Reform Project II, the $450-million loan, to cover the cost of the government’s CCT Program, dubbed by the Aquino administration as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) from 2016 to 2019.

In its news statement announcing the approval of the loan to the Philippines, the World Bank said that the 4Ps is a crucial tool to reduce poverty in the country and “has grown into one of the largest and best-targeted social safety- net programs in the world, with 82 percent of the benefits going to the bottom 40 percent of the country’s population.”

Mr. Aquino himself has appealed to whoever would succeed him for the 4Ps to continue because the realization of the ultimate goal of the program is dependent upon its continuity until the first beneficiaries graduate high school, and, thus, be able to find a job. For this year, the total number of beneficiaries is pegged at 4 million families.

But debt watchdog FDC alleged that the funding for the program, especially if obtained through new loans, is not sustainable, and that the Aquino administration had a penchant for borrowing money to fund programs that have so-called social or economic impact, such as the 4Ps, and even its infrastructure spending.

The FDC, in a news statement, said that the total debt that Mr. Aquino will leave behind when he steps out of office in June would amount to P6.4 trillion, of which more than two-thirds, or P4.16 trillion, was borrowed during his term.

The FDC suggested that the government should operate on a cash basis, or that it should only spend what it has collected instead of borrowing money to pay off maturing obligations and investing on programs, such as the 4Ps.

However, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary Manuel L. Quezon III said that the government needs to spend money on the poor to help them break the cycle of poverty.

“If we try to look at the intent of the 4Ps, we can see that it is intended to help break the cycle of poverty. If you have a child, you can receive an allowance but it has conditions, such as they have to stay in school and they have to undergo medical checkups. All these things give them a step forward in life so that the cycle of poverty can be broken,” Quezon said in a news conference on Monday.

He added that the financial assistance given to the beneficiaries of the 4Ps should not be considered as a mere “dole out,” as the financial assistance is given with certain conditions which must be fulfilled.

Quezon said the expenses for the 4Ps, for which P62.7 billion is allotted for the 2016 national budget, is a necessary expense to give the poorest Filipinos a chance to improve their lot.

“Are we going have a permanent underclass in our society who will have no hope and no means to improve their standing in life? The obstacles they face in trying to improve their lives are the lack of access to health services and education. Which is why we try to encourage them to go to school because we can see through our data that if you reach a certain level of education, even at the high- school level, you can earn more and that is the start of breaking the cycle of poverty,” Quezon said.