MORE than P26.3 million worth of cash aid were returned to the treasury as the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) completed the one-time cash assistance provided to low-income families affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) implemented in the NCR Plus from March 29 to April 11.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, in his report to President Duterte on Monday night, said that of the close to P22.9 billion released to the different local government units in the National Capital Region (NCR), Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, at least P22.8 billion have already been distributed to 22.9 million beneficiaries.
“I am happy to report to the President that we have achieved the 100 percent status in the distribution of cash aid in NCR Plus,” he said.
Año said some LGUs also returned some funds after failing to locate the beneficiaries.
He said in Metro Manila, P11.16 billion were distributed to beneficiaries, while Navotas City returned P4.857 million.
In Cavite, the province distributed P3.42 billion and remitted back P20.53 million after the cities of Bacoor and Imus, and the towns of General Emilio Aguinaldo and Magallanes returned excess funds.
Laguna distributed P2.71 billion worth of aid and returned P65,546 after Los Baños returned their undistributed financial aid, while Rizal distributed P2.6 billion and gave back P841,000 after Baras returned its allocation.
Only Bulacan distributed all of the P2.96 billion that was released to the provincial government.
The government distributed a one-time P1,000 cash aid, with a maximum of P4,000 per family, to individuals affected by the two-week ECQ.
As this developed, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said LGUs in areas placed under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from June 1 to 15 may provide aid to their constituents, if needed.
“Whenever there is a lockdown, it is the local government that gives away the assistance,” Roque said.
President Duterte on Monday approved the imposition of MECQ in Santiago City, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Puerto Princesa City, Iloilo City, Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Cagayan de Oro City, Butuan City, and Agusan del Sur due to rising number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections.
Meanwhile, President Duterte yesterday extended the grant of special risk allowance (SRA) for private and public health workers who are directly in contact and attending to COVID-19 patients.
The President, in signing Administrative Order No. 42 on Tuesday, amended Administrative Order No. 36 that granted health workers up to P5,000 SRA per month.
The grant of the allowance is in recognition of the “heroic and invaluable contribution of our health workers throughout the country, who bravely and unselfishly risk their lives and health by being at the forefront of national efforts to respond to the pandemic.”
Under the new AO, the grant of the Covid-19 SRA “shall be prorated based on the number of days that the frontline health workers physically report for work in a month, as certified by the head of the hospital, laboratory, or medical and quarantine facility, or his/her authorized representatives, reckoned from Sept. 15, 2020 until June 30, 2021.”
The SRA funds shall be sourced from the P13.5 billion appropriated under Section 10 (a) of RA No. 11494 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (Bayanihan 1) for health-related responses to COVID-19.
Also yesterday, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday said qualified pensioners of the Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) are set to receive their one-time P20,000 financial assistance starting this June.
In a statement, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the estimated 32,000 EC pensioners will start to get their cash assistance in batches.
“The P20,000 financial assistance from the ECC for private and public sector EC pensioners will be credited to their accounts starting this month of June,” Bello said, adding the cash aid will be sent through the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), which are the ECC‘s administering agencies for the private and public sector.
It was back in April 19 when President Duterte signed Administrative Order No. 39-2021, which granted a one-time financial assistance of P20,000 to EC pensioners in both the public and the private sectors. — With Gerard Naval
