THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is eyeing the start of the distribution of the second tranche of the emergency cash subsidy of the government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP) this week, Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Bautista said yesterday.
Bautista said a set of guidelines had already been crafted which would serve as basis for the distribution of the SAP, which is intended for low income families who lived in the areas covered by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in May, namely the National Capital Region, Cagayan Valley (Region 3) except Aurora, Calabarzon (Region 4-A), the provinces of Benguet, Pangasinan, Iloilo, Cebu, and Albay, and the cities of Bacolod, Davao and Zamboanga.
Bautista said some five million waitlisted or left out families from the first tranche will also benefit from the May payout. The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Monday said it has already validated 4 million of the five million left out families.
“Ninais natin na masimulan ang pamamahagi sa linggong ito. Ngunit, gusto din nating bigyang diin na mahalaga ang ginagawang validation process dahil matutukoy ng ahensya ang hindi karapat-dapat na makatanggap ng emergency subsidy o SAP (We want to start the distribution this week. But we need to emphasize the importance of the validation process to identify those that are not eligible for the emergency subsidy or SAP),” he said.
Bautista said as of June 1, P99.7 billion of the SAP funds for April had already been distributed to 17.6 million beneficiaries. He said 807 local government units (LGUs) had already submitted a complete liquidation report and list of beneficiaries, while 257 others had submitted a partial list and liquidation report, or a total of 1,064 LGUS.
BAYANIHAN REPORT
In his 10th report to Congress, President Duterte said that as of May 29, 98 percent or 17,579,395 of the intended families for the first tranche of SAP had already received the cash aid.
He said this amounts to P99.34 billion of the allotted budget for the program.
The President also said that based on DILG monitoring, 1,259 LGUs nationwide have already submitted the list of eligible waitlisted or left-out household beneficiaries as of May 27.
He said 1,984,787 had also already registered with the DSWD’s ReliefAgad System that would enable the electronic distribution of the second tranche of the subsidy.
Duterte also reported that apart from SAP, the government had already distributed, as of May 26 and 27, P3.286 billion to 657,201 targeted beneficiaries under the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE’s) COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) for affected formal workers.
DOLE also distributed P1.264 billion worth of cash aid to 337,198 beneficiaries under its Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program, and P1.316 billion to 128,538 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) under its CAMP Abot-Kamay and Pagtulong (AKAP) for displaced OFWs.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) had also downloaded P2.956 billion worth of aid through the Land Bank of the Philippines for 585,914 beneficiaries from its Financial Subsidy for Rice Farmers (FRSF) program.
The President said 67 local government units had also availed of their Bayanihan Grants and had spent, as of May 28, P1.308 billion which went to food and relief assistance (P907.299 million), hospital equipment (P125.585 million), food, transportation, accommodation of medical and local government personnel involved in COVID-19 relief efforts (P70.29 million), procurement of medicine and vitamins (P50.645 million), and procurement of personal protective equipment sets (P47.557 million), among others.
ADDITIONAL BUDGET
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has asked the national government for additional funding for its DOLE-AKAP for OFWs program.
Bello said a total of 450,000 OFWs affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have sought to avail of the OFW cash subsidy. “Looking at the funds, we are certain that it will not be enough. So we are again compelled to ask for additional budgetary allocation to be able to satisfy the 450,000 applicants,” he said.
The DOLE-AKAP is a one-time P10,000 or $200 cash assistance to OFWs, whether in the Philippines or on-site, affected by the health pandemic.
The DOLE was initially allocated P1.5 billion to provide assistance to 150,000 OFWs. It was subsequently provided with an additional allocation of P1 billion to bring their total budget to P2.5 billion.
Bello said the program has received some 450,000 applications since the start, of which the DOLE has released cash assistance for 145,000 OFWs for an amount of P1.45 billion.
“This is the reason for which we are asking for additional budgetary allocation,” said Bello. — With Gerard Naval
