The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has vowed to continuously coordinate with the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) to ensure the expeditious release of emergency cash subsidies to qualified driver-beneficairies of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao said payouts are ongoing to all beneficiaries, included in the certified list of the LTFRB, and to “waitlisted” recipients.
“Around 98, 132 driver-beneficiaries in the NCR received the first tranche of cash aid. They will receive also the second tranche. Others are included in the waitlist. Payouts are ongoing,” she told the Manila Bulletin in a Viber message, after the House Committee on Transportation, chaired by Samar 1st District Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento counted on the DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista to fulfill his commitment to expedite the delivery of long-overdue cash aid to public transport drivers.
In a statement, the DSWD assured the public that it "will hasten the validation process and continue its coordination with the LTFRB and LBP for the immediate release of assistance to qualified driver-beneficiaries.” Covered by SAP are qualified drivers of Transportation Network Vehicle Services (TNVS), Motorcycle Taxis (MC), and public utility vehicles (PUVs).
"To date, LBP branches in Metro Manila have available subsidies amounting to P323,344,000 for 40,418 drivers of TNVS and PUVs,” the DSWD said.
It noted that around 206, 444 public transport drivers have received their cash aid.
These include the 24,067 driver-beneficiaries from the National Capital Region (NCR) who already claimed assistance worth P192.53 million from LBP branches.
According to the DSWD, around 21,610 motorcycle taxi drivers and 36, 104 PUV drivers also got their emergency cash subsidies amounting to P172.88 million and P288.83 million, respectively via GCash.
"In addition, about 88,808 non-LTFRB certified drivers in NCR also received P710,464,000 cash assistance through GCash transfer,” it said.
The DSWD said it already distributed SAP aid to “waitlisted” drivers in five regions, aside from the NCR.
The breakdown is as follows per region: Region V (Bicol), 1,088; Region VI (Western Visayas) , 16,908; Region VII (Central Visayas), 11,017; Region XI (Davao), 12,459; and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), 5,400.
The DSWD said after receiving the LTFRB’s certified list of possible SAP driver-recipients, it conducted a validation and name-matching process to prevent duplication of assistance with other government agencies implementing SAP.
"After the validation process, drivers who were not included in the certified list of other government agencies but were found to be eligible for assistance will be referred to concerned DSWD Field Offices for inclusion to the roll of SAP waitlisted beneficiaries,” it said.
"Once included as waitlisted beneficiaries, DSWD will then provide their names to the LBP and to its financial service providers (FSPs). The FSPs will then credit the emergency subsidies into the beneficiaries’ restricted transactional or nominated accounts within 24 hours upon receipt of the funds from LBP.”