By Warren Elijah Valdez
DAVAO CITY — Davao del Sur will end the extension of their Social Amelioration Program (SAP) today, May 7, targeting 100% completion of SAP beneficiaries in the province.
As of today, 92,833 were already provided with emergency subsidies, which is 95.61 percent of the targeted number.
The implementation and orientation of Davao del Sur’s SAP started last April 2 with a total of 97,095 targeted beneficiaries.
Around P550 million was allocated for this program for the province.
The following municipalities in Davao de Sur have a targeted number of beneficiaries to be catered as follows: Bansalan (9,807), Digos (29,947), Hagunoy (8,471), Kiblawan (6,504), Magsaysay (7,556), Malalag (5,211), Matanao (8,246), Padada (4,450), Sta. Cruz (12,564), and Sulu (4,339).
In a virtual press interview with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) XI, Thursday, DSWD XI assistant team leader for Davao Del Sur, Elvie Bahinting, said that Davao del Sur is one of the fastest to cater to their people after the full implementation of the emergency subsidy program among the provinces in Davao region.
The first municipality to implement and to have completed the amelioration program was the Municipality of Sulu along with Tarragona in Davao Oriental, followed by Kiblawan and Malalag in Davao del Sur.
As of now, only Sta. Cruz has a balance of around 4,000 beneficiaries to be catered. Some beneficiaries from Digos and Bansalan are already being supervised as well.
Based on the Omnibus guidelines no. 9 of the SAP implementation, the first priorities for assistance are the pantawid beneficiaries or the poorest households identified by the listahanan.
Other prioritized are families with low income that belong to the informal sectors, SAP contracted workers (house helpers, tricycle drivers, etc.), farm laborers, fish folks, IPs in far-flung areas, vulnerable groups (PWD, senior citizens, pregnant and lactating women), and overseas Filipino workers in distress. Bahinting also clarified that this program qualification is a “family approach.”
The LGUs also listed left outs or those who were qualified but weren’t included in the SAP’s first tranche of Davao del Sur. They are advised to immediately raise the concern to their respective barangay health workers (BHW) and purok leaders for a subject of assessment.
Validated left outs are being referred immediately to their Assistance in Crisis Situation (AICS). “Because of this prioritization, there is really a high tendency that there’s a strict selection of qualified beneficiaries,” Bahinting said.