A day before its target date to complete the manual and digital payouts of the second tranche of emergency cash subsidies, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reported that it has served over 12.51 million family-beneficiaries.
The DSWD said it has distributed P74.5 billion worth of cash subsidies to around 12, 517, 388 SAP 2 beneficiaries, as of 8 p.m., August 14.
The number of served beneficiaries is 88.7 percent of the agency's targeted 14.1 million recipients for the second phase implementation of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
The DSWD earlier said it is eyeing to complete the distribution of the second tranche of SAP 2 subsidies by August 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.
In a radio interview over the weekend, DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao assured the public that despite the increasing number of COVID-19 cases among its personnel, the second tranche distribution of SAP and the implementation of its regular pro-poor programs will remain unhampered. She had disclosed that the agency recorded 160 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with one death and 57 recoveries.
Of the total number of COVID-19 cases, 32 are active cases from the Central Office and 70 from the Field Offices (FOs), Dumlao said in a phone interview with the Manila Bulletin.
She said an employee in the Central Office had succumbed to the disease.
Dumlao said the DSWD Central Office has 12 recoveries, while 45 personnel from FOs who caught the disease have recovered.
She said those infected personnel were involved in the distribution of SAP emergency cash subsidies, and in the continued implementation of the DSWD’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation, and those who assisted locally-stranded individuals.
The DSWD has been tasked to lead the implementation of SAP, which grants subsidies ranging from P5,000 to P8,000 to low-income households as provided for under Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.