PRESIDENT Duterte said government will need an extra P66.4 billion to assist an additional 5.4 million households who are not covered by the Special Amelioration Program (SAP).
But due to budget limitations, the President said the government will focus at the moment on the poorest of the poor families, he said in his third weekly report to Congress.
As of 2018, there were about 24.7 million families nationwide, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Congress has given Duterte the authority to use P275 billion from the 2020 national budget to fund government measures set in place to respond to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The amount covers expenses for government’s health programs against the spread of the coronavirus, acquisition of medical supplies, and cash aid for low-income families and members of vulnerable sectors.
The allocation excludes any relief assistance for the middle-class sector.
In the report, the President reiterated that he has directed his economic managers to look for practical approaches on how government can assist and cushion the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the current lockdown on families not covered by the P5,000 to P8,000 emergency subsidy program.
He noted, though, that different government agencies have been providing various forms of emergency assistance to specific sectors, like the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), the Tulong Pang-hanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD)-Barangay ko, Bahay Ko (BKBK) program of the Department of Labor and Employment.
The DOLE’s target for CAMP originally at 115,806 formal workers has been raised to 321,975 individuals following the lockdown. On the other hand, the TUPAD original target of 193,298 was raised to 235,949 workers.
Duterte said that as of April 9, DOLE had released P840 million for CAMP which benefited 169,941 workers, while P206 million was released for TUPAD which covered 118,086 informal workers.
