The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Tuesday that it has received over P2.6 billion of returned and refunded emergency cash subsidies.
“As of August 5, ang DSWD ay nakatanggap na po ng (has received) mahigit na P2.6 billion na refunded or returned budget mula sa ating Social Amelioration Program (As of August 5, the DSWD has received over P2.6 billion in refunded or returned budget from the Social Amelioration Program),” DSWD Undersecretary Rene Glen Paje said in a virtual press briefing.
He said of the total amount, over P49 million SAP aid has been returned by around 7,931 beneficiaries from different regions "due to duplication of assistance received from other government agencies or ineligibility.”
According to him, 547 local government units (LGUs) also "refunded or returned” more than P1.2 billion emergency cash assistance to DSWD.
“Ang refund ay dahil po sa duplication, dahil sa ineligibility o kaya excess or unexpended fund transfer sa mga LGUs (The refund is due to duplication because of inegibility or excess or unexpected fund transfer to the LGUs),” Paje explained.
He said apart from the returned SAP aid from the LGUs, and beneficiaries, the DSWD also got P66.4 million from financial service providers.
“Samantala, ang mga FSPs ay nagrefund din ng P1.3 billion. Ang mga dahilan ng refund mula sa ating sa FSPs ay unsuccessful credit problems with payroll file or inclusion of areas beyond the coverage of the FSPs (Meanwhile, the FSPs also refunded P1.3 billion. The reasons for this include the unsuccessful credit problems with payroll file or inclusion of areas beyond the coverage of the FSPs,)” the DSWD official added.
Paje earlier noted that the number of SAP 2 beneficiaries has been trimmed down to 14.1 million after the agency scrapped from the list the 675, 933 duplicate recipients, and 239, 859 ineligible beneficiaries, and the 58, 725 families who voluntarily returned their cash aid.
In a statement, the DSWD had assured the public that "the excess funds from the reduced number of beneficiaries for the second tranche of SAP would still be used judiciously in government efforts to address the ongoing pandemic."
Paje said the DSWD is closely coordinating with President Duterte’s economic managers for the “proper management” of the P2.6 billion returned, refunded SAP funds, which will likely be remitted to the Bureau of Treasury or will be tapped to finance other social amelioration initiatives like the Livelihood Assistance Grants being implemented by the DSWD.
Citing their August 11 SAP monitoring data, he noted that the DSWD has distributed P73.07 billion worth of SAP 2 aid to 12.1 million beneficiaries
He said the number of served beneficiaries is almost 86 percent of the 14.1 million targeted beneficiaries for the second tranche. The SAP 2 aid distributed to beneficiaries totals P73, 075,044,950.
Included in the DSWD’s latest list of SAP 2 recipients are 5.52 million are low-income, and non-beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps); 1.35 million are 4Ps families; 3.03 million are “waitlisted”, low-income, and non-4Ps households nationwide; and 1.36 million are “waitlisted” beneficiaries from the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) areas.
Paje assured the public that the digital and manual payouts continue to cover the two million unserved SAP beneficiaries, even as he expressed the DSWD’s commitment to complete the SAP 2 distribution by August 15.
Sa ngayon ay nasa humigit kumulang 86 percent na ang ating naabot sa ating pamamahagi sa ikalawang yugto ng SAP. Inaasahan natin na mas tataas pa ang percentage ng ating accomplishment lalo na tuloy-tuloy payout. Sinisikap natin na makukumpleto ang ating pamamahagi ng second tranche sa ikalawang linggo ng Agosto (As of now, we have reached 86-percent completion rate of our second tranche distribution of SAP. We expect that the percentage of our accomplishment rate will increase, especially now the distribution continues. We are trying to complete the distribution of the second tranche by the second week of August),” he said.
The DSWD’s clean list of beneficiaries include 1.3 million 4Ps beneficiaries in ECQ areas; 7.2 non-4Ps in ECQ areas from May 1 to 15; 3.2 million “waitlisted” beneficiaries who did not receive the first tranche; and the 2.1 million “waitlisted” beneficiaries in ECQ areas from May 1 to 15.
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.