AN opposition lawmaker has criticized the administration for its failure to help Filipinos improve their lives and save them from hunger.

Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay said that President Benigno Aquino III has failed to implement concrete programs that will address poverty and hunger.

Magsaysay was reacting to the latest survey of the Social Weather Station (SWS) showing that the number of Filipinos who went hungry grew in the past three months under the Aquino government.

“This means that this administration has not implemented concrete programs to arrest unemployment, rising cost of commodities and services resulting to more hunger felt by the  people,” Magsaysay said.

Based on the survey, the number of Filipinos who experienced hunger increased from 15.9 percent last September to 20.5 percent this March or an estimated 4.1 million families.

The survey likewise showed that 51 percent of the respondents considered themselves poor.

According to Magsaysay, the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program being implemented by the government seems to be useless, as it did not help alleviate poverty.

“It shows that the CCT program is not effective,” she stressed.

It can be recalled that the opposition has expressed strong objection to the allocation of at least P21 billion for CCT in which the government’s target is to provide monthly dole outs to more than 2.1 million Filipinos.

Magsaysay said the fund is too big for the program as it deprived other vital projects of the government with much needed allocation like education and health.

Despite repeated objections from the opposition and other sectors, the administration approved the CCT budget.

Under the program, each poor and qualified family will receive P1,400 monthly dole out.