The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Saturday said there has been no report of any anomaly or irregularity involving local government officials in the distribution of the second tranche of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
“So far, wala po tayong mga natatanggap na reklamo hingil sa mga alleged irregularities sa pamamahagi ng ayuda (So far, we have not received any complaints regarding the alleged irregularities in the distribution of cash aid),” DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao told DZMM Teleradyo after she was asked if there are still local officials who are abusing the second phase implementation of the government’s ameliorative initiative as provided for under the already-lapsed Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.
The DSWD official disclosed the information five days after Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año disclosed that around 416 barangay officials are being investigated over their supposed involvement in the anomalous distribution of SAP.
Dumlao explained that for the second tranche distribution of SAP, the DSWD has tapped financial service providers (FSPs) for the digital payout to ensure that the cash subsidy will directly go straight to the transactional accounts of the beneficiaries.
“Wala po itong dinaanan na ibang offices or entities, diresto sa account ng ating beneficiaries (The SAP fund does not pass through other offices or entities, it is directly credited to the account of the beneficiaries),” she said.
During the first phase implementation, the DSWD downloaded the SAP funds to the local government units (LGUs). But due to alleged irregularities in the SAP distribution, President Duterte directed the DSWD to lead the distribution, with the assistance of the military and police, especially in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs).
“After ng pamamahagi ng ayuda, as per accounting rules and procedures, kinakailangan na magsagawa tayo ng liquidation. Ang mga financial service providers ay kinakailangan ding magsumite ng liquidation upang makita natin na lahat ng pondo ay nagamit o napunta sa intended beneficiaries (After the distribution of cash aid, as per accounting rules and procedures, we have to conduct liquidation. The financial service providers also need to submit their liquidation reports so that we can find out whether the funds were used or benefit the intended beneficiaries),” Dumlao said.
She noted that for the manual payout, the DSWD is leading the distribution, in coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Dumlao committed to cover the more than 241,000 unserved beneficiaries for the second tranche, majority of whom come from remote areas in Region III (Central Luzon) and Region IV-A (Calabarzon).
“Minamadali na po ng DSWD na matapos itong pamamahagi ng second tranche ng SAP. Tayo ay patuloy na nakikipag-ugnayan sa mga lokal na pamahalaan at sa ating mga FSPs upang ma-proseso ang accounts ng ating beneficiaries at matapos na natin sa buwan na ito ang mga natitira na accounts na kailangang ma-process (The DSWD is expediting the completion of the second tranche distribution of SAP. We continue to coordinate with the local government and the FSPs so we can process the accounts of the beneficiaries and we can complete the processing of the remaining accounts this month),” she said.
In a virtual press briefing last Thursday, DSWD Undersecretary Rene Glen Paje disclosed that its four partner-financial service providers in the National Capital Region (NCR) have recorded some 853,000 cases of “failed” transactional accounts during SAP2 after the beneficiaries supplied conflicting information, like their first, middle, and last names; mobile numbers, and SAP ID.
He said among the reasons for failed transactions are the following: the names of the beneficiaries given in their mobile wallet registration and in the payroll are different; duplication of mobile numbers or failure to provide their cellphone numbers.
Paje said the bulk of the 853,000 recorded failed transactional accounts was from GCash, numbering over 660,000, followed by PayMaya with 111,000.
UnionBank and Robinsons Bank recorded more than 60,000 and over 20,000 failed transactions, respectively, he said.