MANILA, Philippines – Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman has called on the country’s teeming millions to trust the Aquino  government to deliver basic services and in weaning them from grinding poverty.

Soliman aired this plea in Friday’s Balitaan sa Rembrandt as she was asked to justify the long-term viability of conditional cash transfers that average P1,100 for every family living below the poverty line.

These transfers currently benefit 900,000 families and Soliman says the total number of beneficiaries could reach 4.5 million families by 2016, when the Aquino administration leaves office.

These transfers are funded by loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other multilateral financial institutions.

In effect, these doleouts add billions to the country’s debt stock and could actually worsen the deficit.

Soliman denied having any hand in the crafting of the Peace Bonds, which she said was designed, discussed and approved during the time of former Finance Secretary Lito Camacho.

Asked how the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) would handle rice distribution since it became the beneficiary of the P8-billion fund diverted from the National Food Authority (NFA), Soliman said her agency would purchase rice, possibly from NFA, which is still awash with rice.