ILOILO City – The distribution of cash assistance to beneficiaries of the national government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP) here is slow.
Of the 79,215 identified family-beneficiaries in this city, only little over 2,000 were able to receive their assistance as of April 24, or some three percent, according to Mayor Jerry Treñas.
Each family-beneficiary is entitled to receive P6,000.
It was on April 11 yet when the city government received from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) P475,290,000 for the SAP cash assistance.
Local government units were given only five days to release the cash assistance from the day the funds were downloaded to them, said Assistant Secretary Rhea Peñaflor.
“Ako nagaproblema. Tama ka hinay. Daku pa sang aton ginalagas,” said Treñas.
He hoped the cash assistance distribution would be completed before April 30.
The city government must be able to submit a report on the SAP by the first week of May, said Treñas.
What’s slowing down the cash assistance’s distribution?
One was the changes in DSWD’s guidelines identifying beneficiaries, said Treñas.
Barangay tanods, barangay health worker and barangay daycare workers are now qualified for the SAP; they weren’t previously.
The previous guidelines listed only the following as qualified for the cash assistance (per low-income family):
* senior citizens
* persons with disability
* pregnant women
* lactating mothers
* solo parents
* overseas Filipino workers in distress
* indigent
* homeless
* informal workers
* occasional workers like househelpers
* drivers of pedicabs, tricycles, taxis, public utility buses, and public utility jeepneys
* micro-entrepreneurs
* sub-minimum wage earners
* farmers, fishermen (provided they are not recipients of assistance from the Department of Agriculture)
* workers in the private sector observing “no work, no pay” (provided they have not availed themselves of the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program of the Department of Labor and Employment)
Treñas said, “Ang kapitan mahinay ang obra kay ti damo pressure, tanan sa barangay gusto madala (in the SAP).”/PN
