BACOLOD City – Following complaints of some social amelioration program (SAP) beneficiaries in this city and for failure to receive the second tranche of the financial assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) is asking DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo to conduct an investigation.
In a resolution passed by the SP on Wednesday, August 3, they were requesting Tulfo to conduct a probe as to why the second tranche of SAP was not released to most of its beneficiaries here, as well as to those qualified residents who failed to receive such assistance the soonest possible time.
During the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the previous administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte mandated the releasing of the SAP for those who were badly affected by the pandemic.
Councilor Simplicia Distrito, who authored the resolution, said that several complaints have been aired by her constituents, qualified and identified as SAP beneficiaries, who were not able to receive the said assistance until now.
“As public officials, we cannot give them a definite answer as to why they were not able to receive the assistance for more than two years already,” Distrito, also the chair of the SP committee on social services and development, added.
She further said that in line with the present direction of the new DSWD secretary to provide an excellent public service to the poor, vulnerable, marginalized, and disadvantaged sectors in the society, it is necessary that a probe be conducted to once and for all resolve this issue for the benefit of the constituents.
It was reported earlier that the present DSWD secretary announced that he would look into the agency’s supposed failure to rollout nearly P2 billion worth of financial aid.
The Commission on Audit (COA), in its annual audit report, flagged the agency for failing to distribute P1.9 billion of cash assistance under the SAP, the report added.
Tulfo said some P1.7 billion has been returned to the Bureau of Treasury./PN
