Foreign expert says PHL government needs to review CCT’s targeting mechanism

THE GOVERNMENT should revisit its conditional cash transfer program to ensure that they are given only to those who need them, an expert said.
“You have to slow down the program because you are still learning,” Nanak Kakwani, an economics professor from the University of New South Wales said during a seminar hosted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
She said that this may give the government breathing room to reassess its targeting mechanism.
Mr. Kakwani had a similar stance with a 2015 PIDS study where the CCT, or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, had a 29% leakage rate.
The study noted that about three in every 10 CCT beneficiaries are not poor and do not even deserve to be part of the program.
The government said earlier that the issuance of the National ID system would help plug these leakages. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan