Senator Alan Peter Cayetano has renewed his call for direct, sustainable financial aid to Filipino families to close gaps in the current targeted assistance system.
During the recent plenary debates on the proposed 2025 budget with the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), Cayetano mentioned the success of providing P10,000 per family, a strategy he used during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide relief.
“As you know, I’ve personally advocated P10,000 per Filipino family. We did that during the pandemic. Towards 2021, I personally felt na kailangan ng additional ayuda. So theoretically, we can actually give P10,000 per family. In fact, we can give 20 [thousand pesos] if it’s P500 billion and we have 27 [million families],” he said.
His comments came after Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Committee on Finance, discussed the P591 billion allocated for ayuda or aid in the 2025 budget.
But, Cayetano noted that the government’s preference is for targeted assistance, which he said mainly benefits those with the right connections or those living near government offices.
“The answer last year is we’d rather have it targeted. Ang problema sa targeted, if you do not have the right padrino, the right access to media or hindi mo katabi y’ung regional office, hindi rin napupunta sa poorest of the poor [ang ayuda,]” the senator from Taguig said.
Poe agreed with him as she acknowledged that vulnerable sectors are often overlooked under the current system.
Cayetano called for a shift toward a more inclusive and sustainable form of assistance that would help families become self-sufficient.IMT
