Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said that the agency “cannot accept” the P8 billion reduction in its 2016 budget and called for the Senators to put back the said amount as it will serve as cash grants for Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries.
“This was made despite the fact that the Senate has approved our budget proposal in the budget plenary session in November, without deductions,” Soliman said in a statement. “In fact, they even put in additional funds to our Social Pension and Supplementary Feeding Programs so we can cover more indigent Filipinos in need of government support.”
If the budget cut will be implemented in 2016, Soliman pointed out that in two months, 4.4 million households will not receive health and education grants, 10.2 million children will not be able to go to school nor visit a health facility to have their physical fitness checked, and there will be no Family Development Sessions the parents can attend to and learn from.
According to Soliman, Senator Ralph Recto has committed to work on restoring DSWD’s budget to the proposed amount of P113 billion. She added that the proponents of the cut, Senators Vicente “Tito” Sotto, Juan Ponce Enrile and Loren Legarda, “may have to explain to more than 15 million Pantawid Pamilya individual beneficiaries why they will have to go through this.” (PRC/DSWD)