The Department of Social Welfare and Development vowed Wednesday (August 5) to cover the remaining 5 million beneficiaries who have yet to receive their second tranche of emergency cash subsidies.
DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao said this noting over 9.7 million families or 69. 2 percent of the targeted beneficiaries for the second tranche already received their SAP 2 aid.
“Nasa mahigit na 5 million pa ang mabibigyan ng ayuda (There are still over 5 million beneficiaries expected to receive cash aid),” she told DZBB in an interview. “Atin pong napag-usapan by the middle of August, nakikita po natin na tapos na tayo sa pamamahagi ng ayuda (we are eyeing to finish the distribution of cash aid middle of August).”
In a virtual press briefing on Tuesday, August 5, DSWD Undersecretary Rene Glen Paje said not 17 million, but over 14.1 million beneficiaries have been identified to benefit from the second phase implementation of SAP.
He said the number of SAP 2 beneficiaries has been trimmed down to 14.1 million after the agency scrapped from the list 675, 933 duplicate recipients, and 239, 859 ineligible beneficiaries, and the 58, 725 families who voluntarily returned their cash aid.
Dumlao said the DSWD already distributed P63.2 billion worth of SAP 2 cash aid to over 9.7 million beneficiaries.
“Patuloy naman po ag pamamahagi ng ayuda despite the challenges na naeencounter natin (The distribution of cash aid continues despite the challenges we have encountered) ,” she said.
The DSWD official also assured the public that it has coordinated with its financial service providers (FSP)-partners to address the reported long queues in the remittance centers, and previous instances wherein the SAP recipients started to line up early dawn to receive their long-overdue emergency subsidies.
"Nung pinagpaalam po sa amin agad naming kinonsult o nirefer itong matter sa financial service providers para matiyak na hindi maulet ang mga instances na naireport na madaling araw pa lang pumipila at para matiyak na may sapat na pondo para dun sa payout centers (When we were informed, we immediately consulted or referred this matter to the financial service providers to ensure that the reported instances where the beneficiaries started to queue early dawn will not happen again and to ensure that the payout centers have enough funds),” Dumlao told DZMM TeleRadyo in an interview.
She took the opportunity to appeal to the SAP 2 recipients to only go to concerned remittance centers during their scheduled payout.
“'Yung mga beneficiaries na sineserve ng centers ay karagdagan sa kanilang regular transactions kung kaya po kinailangan i-manage 'yung ating distribution. Kaya kami ay nakikiusap sa ating beneficiaries na tayo ay sumunod sa mga itinakdang schedule (The beneficiaries being served by the centers is addition to their regular transactions that’s why there is a need to manage the distribution. We appeal to our beneficiaries to follow set schedules),” she said.
During her interview with the DZBB, Dumlao said the DSWD is “managing the situation” in coordination with the FSPs and the local government units (LGUs).
President Duterte has decided to revert the National Capital Region (NCR), and neighbouring areas, including Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal to a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from August 4 to 18, 2020, following the continued rise in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
On June 30, 2020, the DSWD signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and six FSPs identified by the Bangko Sentral Pilipinas (BSP) for the digital electronic disbursement of cash aid.
The participating FSPs are GCash, RCBC, Robinsons Bank, PayMaya, Starpay, and Unionbank.
The 11 areas covered by SAP 2 are Region III (Central Luzon) , except Aurora province, the NCR; Region IV-A (CALABARZON) ; Benguet; Pangasinan; Iloilo; Cebu Province; Bacolod City; Davao City, Albay province and Zamboanga City.