The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said on Thursday that the digital and manual payout for the second tranche of emergency cash aid under the government's Social Amelioration Program (SAP) will be completed by July 31, except in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) and conflict-affected areas.
DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao said they are targeting to complete the SAP 2 distribution by end of the month, but for far-flung areas and high-risk areas, the payout will be finished by Aug. 15.
"Inaasahan namin na matatapos ang pamamahagi ng ayuda sa pamamagitan ng digital at manual payout sa kwalipikadong benepisyaryo ng SAP by July 31. Ngunit para sa mga lugar na walang access sa Internet, conflicted-affected areas, at kabilang sa geographically-isolated and disadvantaged areas or iyong mga lugar na kung saan ang ating financial service providers ay walang payout partners, inaasahan ng ahensya na makukumpleto ang pamamahagi ng ayuda sa kanila na hindi lalagpas sa Agosto 15," she said in a virtual press briefing.
(We are expecting that the distribution of cash aid to the qualified beneficiaries through digital and manual payout will be completed by July 31. However, those areas without Internet access, conflict-affected areas, and those included in geographically-isolated and disadvantaged areas or areas where the financial service providers don't have payout partners, the agency expects that the distribution of cash aid to them will be completed on or before August 15)
In a virtual press briefing Wednesday, DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista said the agency is hoping that by end of July, more than 80 percent of the beneficiaries will be served.
Citing their July 15 SAP monitoring report, Dumlao said the DSWD has distributed P19 billion SAP 2 aid to 3.2 milllion or 26 percent of 12 million targeted beneficiaries for the second tranche.
According to the DSWD official, part of the 3.2 million SAP 2 beneficiaries were 1.3 million beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), 985, 404 non-4Ps households, and 894, 476 "waitlisted" beneficiaries.
She noted that on Wednesday, they provided cash aid to 46, 362 unregistered Grab drivers, who are included in the list of waitlisted beneficiaries in the National Capital Region (NCR).
She said the DSWD field offices have started conducting payouts to public utility drivers (PUVs).
Dumlao disclosed based on post-payout validation by the field offices, the agency found around 81,484 duplicate beneficiaries or those who received multiple assistance from the government.
She said around 52, 429 beneficiaries were found to be "inelegible," while 10,862 families voluntarily returned their cash assistance.
Dumlao said 1,563 local government units (LGUs) who conducted payout have submitted their liquidation reports.
This is 96 percent of the LGUs that received the first tranche of SAP funds, she noted.
For the first tranche, around P99.7 billion was distributed to over 17.6 million beneficiaries.
Bautista had appealed to the LGUs which have to yet to liquidate to submit their full reports, including the encoded list of their beneficiaries so that the DSWD can complete its validation and deduplication process.
Last June 30, the DSWD signed a memorandum of agreement with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and six FSPs identified by the Bangko Sentral Pilipinas (BSP).
The participating FSPs are GCash, RCBC, Robinsons Bank, PayMaya, Starpay, and Unionbank.
The 11 areas covered by SAP 2 are Region 3 (Central Luzon), except Aurora; the NCR; Region 4-A (CALABARZON) ; Benguet; Pangasinan; Iloilo; Cebu province; Bacolod City; Davao City, Albay, and Zamboanga City.