AS the month of May comes to a close, more than 100 local government units (LGUs) have yet to complete the distribution of the April tranche of the emergency cash subsidy under the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Bautista said on Thursday.
Bautista said 1,505 of the 1,634 local government units (LGUs) have already reached a 100 percent payout for the first tranche.
This means 129 LGUs are still distributing the April payout for low income families.
Bautista again urged LGUs that are still distributing the first tranche to hurry up their payout to enable the DSWD to start the distribution of the second tranche.
He said of the LGUS that already completed the SAP distribution for April, 771 of them have already submitted their liquidation reports along with the list of beneficiaries that received the payout.
He said P99 billion of the P100 billion SAP budget for April had been received by more than 17.5 million low income households and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) members or 97.7 percent of the intended 18 million beneficiaries.
PATIENCE FOR SECOND TRANCHE
The DSWD has started the validation of the liquidation reports and lists submitted by the LGUs to identify those eligible for the second tranche and avoid the duplication of households.
Bautista appealed for more patience from the beneficiaries of the cash subsidy.
Priorities for the second tranche are “three regions, five provinces and four cities” placed under the enhanced community quarantine in May, according to Bautista.
Under Executive Order 112 signed by President Duterte on April 30 and issued on May 1, the ECQ from May 1 to 15 covered the National Capital Region, Central Luzon except Aurora, Calabarzon, the provinces of Benguet, Pangasinan, Iloilo, and Cebu; and the cities of Bacolod and Davao.
An addendum to the EO was issued later including Albay province and the cities of Legazpi and Zamboanga to the ECQ areas.
Bautista said the LGUS will still be helping in the distribution of the second tranche even as the government taps banks and money transfer facilities to expedite the distribution of the May payout.
He said there will still be some areas, especially remote islands, where the second tranche will be personally distributed.
He added that LGUs, particularly barangay units, will provide logistics to the DSWD, which includes providing the place for the distribution, health aid like ambulances and nurses and as well as additional security to augment the soldiers that would help the DSWD in the distribution.
