REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE In this chapter, the researcher presents readings taken from journals, books including those material attained from the internet.PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAMAccording to Brul (2009) that Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a poverty reduction and social development strategy of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14. The program is currently being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Additionally, Aquino’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program as a stratagem to alleviate poverty is not freedom from but a shackle that locks up the Filipino people to abject poverty ( de Guia, 2011).
4Ps. Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is also called as Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) as Philippine government version. This program helps the penniless people and most of them are living in squatter area and family who can’t provide their basic needs.
Cited by Department of Social Welfare and development (2010), Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a poverty reduction strategy that provides grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14. The program objectives is to alleviate the needs (short term poverty alleviation) of the poor people through cash grants and to provide discontinuity poverty cycle through human investment capital.According to Felizardo (2009), the 4Ps program is not a dole out. It’s not meant to make the poor become lazy and rely on the government nor the NGO’s to alleviate their sad poverty state.
The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, just like the other Conditional Cash Transfer programs of other countries prioritize human dignity through availability of equal opportunities. It aims to provide monetary aid to poor beneficiaries with the hope that these investments in human capital would lessen the great financial divide among the haves and the have nots. The program was meant not a kind of dole-out because the chosen beneficiaries are following the conditions through abiding the agreement of the said program. In this, the family received cash to provide the needs of the children especially the children will attend in school regularly, have visited the health center for regular checkups and also the mother received a cash for their medical checkups especially treatments during pregnancy.MIMAROPA (2011), Pantawid Pamilya is a conditional cash transfer program that provides incentives for poor families to invest in their future by ensuring that mothers and children avail of health care and that children go to school. As such, it is a human development program that invests in the health and education of children. On the other hand, providing immediate relief from cash flow problems will alleviate through providing cash.
The benefits that can get by the beneficiaries of this program are health and nutrition grant in which a household receives P500 per month that is intended for their needs in health and nutrition; and for education the household receives P300 per month per children that is intended for 10 months only per year, and those amount that was receive by every household will depends on the compliance of the conditions that was agreed.According to Maboloc (2012), it can be argued by the PINOY government that making the CCT program work should help guarantee the most basic entitlement of people under any democratic system – respect for their humanity. The CCT can be construed as a matter of right, i.e., the right “not to be hungry”, to borrow from Amartya Sen. It can be said that numbers or the many economic assumptions may be very ambiguous at this point.
The right thing to do, in this regard, is to introduce people, especially the very poor or the poorest of the poor, to fundamental opportunities that will ultimately untie them from the fetters of poverty. The program is good, but he have some serious doubts about it. The problem lies in the fact that the Pantawid Pamilya Program does not address the root cause of poverty – our unjust and inequitable economic system.
At the outset, critics will say that it is more prudent to use this budget to fund the construction of schools, hospitals, roads and many others. Basically, the argument against it is built upon the standard idea in development theory that income is not equal to “well-being achievement”. Simply put, the idea is that the CCT is a “butas na balde”, metaphorically suggesting that the CCT can be money down the drain, for it teaches people dependency. In short, it does not really empower them. But does the CCT uphold the dignity of the poor? It does not.
It only provides a temporary relief to their miserable life. According to the Center for Women’s resources (2012), the program is a dole out plan and simple. The families go through the motion of having check up at the health center and get certification from the school just to fulfill the requirements of the program, not so much because they believe that having check up or getting education should be a regular family activity. Once the program is stopped, chances are they would again stop visiting the health center and stop sending their children to school in order to help in providing income to the impoverished family, said by Cham Perez the CWR senior researcher and sociologist. This observation has been validated by a physician in one of the health centers involved in the CCT program.
Requesting anonymity, the doctor reveals that mothers have still a low level of appreciation in going to the health centers because the centers lack medicines and other amenities needed by the indigent families. “It is frustrating to prescribe a medicine when you know that the patient could not afford to buy it,” the doctor shares. She adds that instead of dole out, the poor can benefit more when there is an increased government budget for free medicines.Poverty.
Is a state of being poor physically and financially. A condition in which an individual or group of people that can’t provide their daily needs especially the basic needs such as; food, shelter and clothing. Being poor is a difficult situation that facing by an individual to survive in everyday life. According to World Bank (2009), poverty is an income level below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. This minimum level is usually called the “poverty line”. Poverty.
According to Eilmot (2009), defined that poverty is already existed from the past generation and until now it is still remains as a worldwide problem. In society all of the cases about poverty is that everybody was equally poor. In addition, Spagnolis (2009), poverty is usually called as a “poverty line'” it means that the family or individual has an income below to it’s a minimum level for them to provide their basic needs. It is usually varies across time and societies for them to be satisfy in their basic needs.
Therefore, it varies to the time and place which is applicable to their norms and values. But this kind of situation is more likely the same everywhere. Poverty as same time it is hunger and lack of basic needs especially shelter.
Also, it is evidence that people experiencing poverty is that they are not able to see a doctor if some members of the family was being sick. The children are not able to enter the school so they don’t know how to read neither to write. Poverty is not a state of being a jobless. Most of them are losing a child to illness due to the fact that they don’t have clean water.
In terms to the society, they don’t have power and lack of presentation and freedom. Harack (2012) emphasizes that people who belong in extreme poverty are the people who are barely meet their minimal needs for their survival. Also, they are often to feed themselves minimally while in moderate poverty are in less in danger wherein they are able to access their basic necessities in life but they are lack in wealth, and they are not able to educate their children.Poverty Alleviation. Rahman (2012) cited that poverty eradication is the first condition for the development.
He emphasized that in the book of Adam Smith “Wealth of Nations” noted that no society can surely be flourishing and happy of which by far the greater part of the numbers are poor and miserable. Through this, the government made an strategy to combat poverty reduction both in short and long terms. To address the poverty reduction strategy framework the National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction was revised to give an special importance on critical areas and essential infrastructure for pro-poor growth and social protection for the vulnerable section of the society and human resource management. Due to macroeconomic stability the domestic savings rate was increased to 19.93% from 18.
77% in the year of 2002-2004. Based from the survey report of Household Income and Expenditure in the year 2010, the population living below the poverty line was decreased to 31.5% (20120) from 40.4% in the year 2005.
In that period, the poverty gap was reduced while the income inequality ratio decreased moderately.Mangabas (2009), statistically 53 percent of Filipino households call themselves as “mahirap” (poor) as evidenced by the Survey Finding and in the last 26 years there is no progress to fight against poverty as indicated. The result of the survey is that the measurement of poverty is rapid and frequent due to increase SRP but fluctuations of poverty is cannot be explained clearly by the economic growth. Filipino who are poor needs increase of wages and stable consumer price and not the economic growth since they can’t benefit.
In addition to Bolivar (2009), the truth about poverty is hunger. As a survey conducted last Nov. 27 to 20, 2010 was found out that there are 3.4 million families are saying that they experience hunger and because of that problem the Malacanang said that they are expecting to reduce the poverty as long as the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program is implemented. Also they categorized hunger base on the experience of every household included: moderate hunger are those who experience hunger just once or a few times and severe hunger t refers to those who experience hunger as often or always.
So, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) is already implemented and to complete the list of CCT beneficiaries to be able for it to validate is that Secretary Corazon Soliman had traveled throughout the country. The DSWD is the group wherein they are capable to manage the budget and to handle CCT beneficiaries to ease the poverty and hunger situation. Calica (2011). Philippine Star (2011), cited that poverty is arising because of the Philippine economy due to the poorest performers in Asia as influenced by the rent seekers or vested interests for the past 50 years. But then, annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth has not been effective in reducing the incidence rate of poverty. the actual incidence of poverty in the Philippines had actually risen since 2003 as thought that the economy is grown well.
To make it more inclusive the Stratbase pursue reforms in the governments that would highly guarantee in the civil and political liberties in terms of influencing to those vested interests, the grafters, rent seekers, peddlers and business suits. Other reason for this is the corruption that was cited by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in doing business in our country because it is to be said that corruption is due to the inefficient government bureaucracy. Health. Health is social. Inequalities in health remind us that action is much needed beyond medical interventions. WHO defined health as a “complete state of physical, mental and social well-being”, (cited by Guinto, 2012).
He emphasized the word “social” that it is often times the missing component in the equation. Based on Social determinants of health, health products is a toxic combination of poor social policies and programs, unfair economic arrangements and bad politics are the unacceptable gaps in health. Social determinants of health refers to the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. Guinto (2012) emphasizing the cause of having a poverty country is based on the governance of the country in which the country has a characterized by factors detrimental to overall population health: lack of policy coherence and political will; weak accountability and implementation; corruption; lack of motivation and skills among government workers; and limited participation of citizens and civil society groups in decision-making, especially in health governance.Nutrition Education Advocacy. It promotes the importance of proper nutrition and good education as ways for kids to improve their lives and come closer to attaining their dreams.
Gov. Vilma Santos, 2011). The program rendered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development is only the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries wherein the beneficiaries are living in one of the poorest provinces, poorest household based on a ranking system, the economic condition is equal to or below the provincial poverty threshold, household that has children 0-14 years old or having a pregnant women and agree to the conditions rendered by the DSWD can benefit. The mother or the father of the family is the responsible person to receive the cash and they get the cash through Land Bank Cash Card.?
