We told you: Doles don’t work.

They are just a waste of good money thrown at a bad idea.

And our position was validated by think tanks and non-government organizations which have done the math, crunched the numbers.

Independent social workers who know the situation on the ground also confirmed that handouts are even counter-productive.     

Some legislators, including allies of President Aquino, have questioned the wisdom of the conditional cash transfer program.

Earlier, in a signed manifesto, some 30 members of the House of Representatives said that the CCT is “a costly palliative, an unsustainable program of dole-outs that will perpetuate the politics of patronage and encourage a culture of mendicancy in the country”.

The lawmakers urged the Aquino administration to instead adopt a long-term strategy to address the root causes of poverty through asset redistribution and job generation.

A study published by the Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network  titled Conditional Cash Transfer Programs and their Impact on Poverty Reduction: Lessons from Mexico and El Salvador,  revealed that the CCT program alone could not result in poverty reduction.

It said: “CCT programs are not a panacea against poverty and social exclusion and its limitations should be addressed by creating other strategies which focus on more comprehensive policy reforms such as the creation of productive options, temporary employment programs, access to micro-credit and micro- entrepreneurial opportunities, among others.”

But if you still have doubts about these findings, just read the latest survey conducted in early September by the Social Weather Stations, a reputable polling firm, showing that the number of families who rated themselves poor and those who have experienced hunger have gone up despite the P21-billion cash dole-out program of the Aquino administration.

The survey results have prompted critics of CCT to say that the flagship program of the Aquino administration has not been effective in alleviating poverty and hunger, particularly among the poorest Filipinos.

The SWS September 4-7 poll showed that 52 percent or some 10.4 million households considered themselves poor, up by three percentage point from June when the self- rated poverty was only at 49 percent or 9.8 million households.

Respondents who said that they were poor in terms of food (self- rated food poverty) accounted for 41 percent or 8.2 million households, a rise from 36 percent or 7.2 million households three months ago.

The September 4-7 survey also showed that one in five households -- 21.5 percent or an estimated 4.3 million families nationwide experienced having nothing to eat in the last three months.

This was up from the four-year low of 15.1 percent recorded in June and a point worse than the 20.5 percent recorded in March.

The latest hunger figure - 7.5 points above the 13-year average of 14 percent - is the worst so far for the Aquino government but is still below the record 24 percent hit in December 2009 during the administration of former President Gloria Arroyo.

Despite these alarming survey results, the Aquino administration stubbornly and wrongly insists that in the long-term the CCT would be able to address the lingering poverty and hunger problems in the country, particularly among the poor schoolchildren, the main beneficiaries of the program.