By Chito Chavez
Qualified Quezon City residents who were excluded from the initial list of recipients of the national government's cash aid will be given P4,000 in financial assistance, with the recent approval of the P1.9 billion second and third supplemental budget for 2020, Mayor Joy Belmonte said.
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte (Mayor Joy Belmonte Official Facebook Page / MANILA BULLETIN)
Belmonte said part of the additional budget, which was approved by the Quezon City Council, will be allotted for those who were left out from the social amelioration program (SAP).
The P4,000 cash assistance from the city government for those excluded from the initial list is half of the P8,000 provided under the SAP for persons whose livelihoods were affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
“Hindi puwedeng may maiiwan. Dapat lahat ng kuwalipikado ay mabigyan ng tulong, kaya inaprubahan natin ang dagdag na pondo,’’ Belmonte said.
(No one should be left out. All qualified residents should be given cash aid, that is why the additional funds were approved.)
The P479-million fund for the second supplemental budget, which will be used for purchase of relief goods, was released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on April 17, as the city government’s one month's share from its internal revenue.
Included in the P1.43-billion third supplemental budget are P750 million for SAP assistance, P200 million for the hazard pay of barangay frontliners, P150 million for Kalingang QC financial assistance, and P280 million for relief goods.
“We allocated P200 per day per person who actually worked at the barangay level,” said Belmonte. “The barangays can give more than P200 as hazard pay if they have enough in their respective funds,."
The city government earlier allocated P750 million from its first supplemental budget amounting to P2.8 billion to cover the financial assistance to residents affected by the ECQ.
Recently, the city government appealed to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for an additional allocation after the agency provided only 377,584 social amelioration cards (SACs) for the city.
The number provided by the DSWD will cover only about half of the estimated 723,822 families, which is projected from the 2015 Census.
Belmonte noted that the total number of families in Quezon City may be significantly higher, based on estimates coming from the barangays.