THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has found more than 22,000 households with “duplicate” claims or receipt of emergency cash subsidies from different government agencies.
DSWD undersecretary Glen Paje yesterday said the “duplication” is one of the reasons for the strict validation and screening of the list of beneficiaries of the first tranche of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
Under DSWD guidelines, families who received emergency cash subsidies from other agencies like the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Finance- Social Security System (DOF-SSS) will no longer receive the second tranche of the DSWD financial aid, or they would be asked to return the SAP subsidy.
The SAP aid can be returned to the local government or the local DSWD offices and a receipt would be given to them as proof of the returned amount.
Paje said it is important to return the SAP subsidy because it was sourced from government funds and would be subject to audit.
He added the returned amount will be added to the fund for the second tranche.
Paje said 1.366 million families had already received P6.74 billion of the second tranche including members of the 4Ps and 556 waitlisted families from the Cordillera Administrative Region who were part of the first batch of beneficiaries.
The DSWD, with the help of the Philippine National Police and the local government in CAR, had personally delivered some of the cash aid in the region especially for those whose heads of family are already senior citizen or those who belong to the vulnerable sector.
Secretary Rolando Bautista, during the Laging Handa network briefing, said the DSWD is looking at doing a similar distribution of cash aid in Central Luzon next week, where more than 680,000 families are included in the second tranche.
Paje said the distribution of cash aid can be done electronically through e-wallet payment schemes, cashcards and over the counter bank transactions, or manually through house to house delivery or an onsite distribution.
Meanwhile, Bautista said 1,162 local government units (LGUs) have already completed the submission of their first SAP tranche liquidation reports that included the list of beneficiaries, while 269 LGUs have only submitted partial reports.
Bautista said P99.8 billion of the SAP fund for the first tranche was distributed to 17.65 million households composed of low income families and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) members.
POLICE BACK-UP
PNP chief Archie Gamboa said troops are ready to provide assistance to the DSWD and LGUs in the distribution of the second tranche of cash assistance to the poor and vulnerable sectors of the society.
“I ordered Police Regional Offices and concerned PNP units to give full support in terms of technical, administrative and logistical assistance to facilitate the orderly distribution of cash aid under SAP,” Gamboa said.
Gamboa said the PNP will deploy its forces from regional and national headquarters to provide security assistance to DSWD and LGUs based on the pronouncement of President Duterte that he will tap the PNP and the AFP to ensure that the payouts will reach the rightful beneficiaries.
Gamboa earlier directed the regional and provincial units of the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to launch a thorough investigation on reported anomalies and irregularities in the cash subsidy distribution.
He said police regional offices have coordinated with AFP territorial units for clearing operations to ensure the safe passage of target cash subsidy beneficiaries from their residences to designated distribution centers.
“Select PNP personnel will be deployed in the distribution centers to assist in the actual disbursement and handling of funds, in cooperation with DSWD Special Disbursing Officers,” Gamboa said.
Local police will also coordinate with barangay officials for the observance of minimum health safety protocols, including sanitation areas and physical distancing, and in providing other security requirements at various distribution centers.
The second tranche SAP distribution will be implemented in the National Capital Region, Central Luzon except Aurora Province, and the Southern Tagalog regions.
Also included are Benguet, Pangasinan, Iloilo, Albay and Cebu; and the key cities of Bacolod, Zamboanga and Davao.
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said the distribution of the cash aid will be “anytime soon” as they are just awaiting the go signal from authorities. — With Raymond Africa