SAN JOSE, Antique – Some 1,438 families in three towns in this province have received their cash assistance under the social amelioration program (SAP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The beneficiaries were those who failed to obtain the first tranche of the SAP.
Mary Ann Masculino, DSWD SAP provincial coordinator, said Thursday the distribution of the P6,000 cash aid for each qualified family-beneficiary in Sebaste, Barbaza, and San Remigio began on July 14.
It was the second payout for more family beneficiaries after the pilot distribution in the municipalities of Hamtic and Tobias Fornier on July 3.
There were 533 eligible families in Hamtic who received their cash assistance and 393 in Tobias Fornier.
Masculino said as of July 16, a total of 1,098 of the 1,277 beneficiaries in San Remigio already received their financial aid.
According to her, they will validate why the remaining recipients failed to receive their cash assistance.
“In Sebaste, there were supposed to be 258 beneficiaries. Twenty-three of them, however, were not able to receive their cash assistance at the Sebaste Central School,” said Masculino.
In Barbaza, 15 of the 120 beneficiaries were not able to receive their emergency cash assistance, she added.
LJ Noble, Barbaza Pantawid municipal link, said the 15 who failed to get their emergency cash assistance could either be ineligible or they were not just able to come to the venue, which was in the municipality’s covered court.
“There were three who are seniors and now bedridden,” she added.
The payout will be done house-to-house in barangays Esparar and Biri for the bed-ridden senior citizens.
Masculino, meanwhile, said they are grateful for the assistance of the three municipalities that deployed their personnel to assist the agency in the direct payout.
“The LGUs (local government units) provided us support in terms also of physical set up of the venues,” she said.
The cash aid distribution was conducted with the support of the LGUs and the Philippine Army.
Masculino said the remaining families in the 13 towns in this province will receive their emergency cash aid via Starpay – conglomerate of the Cebuana Lhuillier, MLhuiller, and the Universal Storefront Services Corporation – within this month.
Around 17,000 family-beneficiaries in this province have yet to receive their financial assistance. (With a report from PNA/PN)
