THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has distributed P62.5 billion of the second tranche of the emergency cash assistance under its Social Amelioration Program (SAP) to 9.6 million low-income families, or 69 percent of the revised target of 14.1 million beneficiaries.
Social Welfare Undersecretary Glen Paje on Tuesday said the 9.6 million recipients include more than 1.3 million Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) members, more than 5 million low income and non-4Ps beneficiaries, and more than 3.1 million waitlisted families.
Paje said the DSWD is hoping to complete the distribution of the second tranche to the revised target of 14.1 million families by the second week of August. The initial target beneficiaries for the second tranche was 17 million.
The revised list no longer contained the names of individuals who have returned their first tranche of SAP, those who had received duplicate or more than one cash aid from two or more government agencies, and those who were disqualified but still received the cash assistance.
Paje said the list included only 3.2 million of the 5 million “waitlisted families” who had been verified and whose names were submitted by the different local government units.
As of July 26, DSWD found 675,933 duplicates those who received cash aid from two or more government agencies; 239,859 ineligibles or those who are not qualified to receive but still got the SAP aid; and 58,725 who voluntarily returned cash aid.
DSWD urged those who received more than one cash aid and who were ineligible to return the payout. It added that local government units may be asked to refund the SAP if they deliberately distributed the payout to non-qualified families.
Paje said DSWD is coordinating with its financial institution partners about the distribution of the remaining SAP aid following the re-imposition of the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal.
In Metro Manila, DSWD-NCR director Vicente Tomas said the second tranche SAP distribution in the region is already 84 percent complete.
Tomas said DSWD-NCR is also ready to distribute family food packs to families who have again been displaced by the MECQ setup.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the government is not selling its assets even after President Duterte said that it no longer has money to provide food and financial aid poor families.
Roque said the government can tap the loans that it had received from international financial institutions.
He said that once the budget and funds from the loans had been used, that will be the only time that the government will consider selling its assets.
