PRESIDENTIAL bet Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday vowed to continue the dole to the poor or Pantawid Pampamilyang Pilipino Program if elected.
He said the 4Ps will not stop because it uses government money and not anyone else’s.
Duterte made his statement even as Malacañang on Thursday denied Duterte’s statement that there had been a high crime incidence during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.
“The Philippine National Police has been sustained and strengthened by President Aquino, as well as the ability of the police to be more effective in combating crime and ensuring the peace and order of our society,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement.
He said it was only during the Aquino administration that each policeman had been issued a gun.
Duterte urged the voters not to be lured by the empty promises of candidates using the government’s 4Ps to get votes.
“The money that the poor people receive from the 4Ps is not candidates’ money but the government’s,” he said.
He said the conditional cash transfer program was not a program of the Aquino administration but of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Arroyo launched the program in 2010 and it continues in all the 17 regions covering 79 provinces, 143 cities and 1,484 municipalities.
Duterte expressed disappointment over the claim of several national and local candidates belonging to the Liberal Party that the 4Ps would stop if they lost in the May 9 elections.
“Don’t worry that the 4Ps will stop. It will continue under a Duterte presidency,” he said.
On top of the cash grants, Duterte said, each household beneficiary would get a sack of rice every month under the his administration.