The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is eyeing to finish the manual payout for the second tranche of the national government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP) and the distribution of cash subsidies under Bayanihan 1 and  2 Law,  “third week of February.”

DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao said the target for the distribution of the cash subsidies under the already-lapsed Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, and Republic Act No. 11494 or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, was arrived at during the consultation meeting of DSWD Secretary  Rolando Bautista with the regional directors held on Monday, February 1. 

“Batay sa naging consultation ng aming butihing Kalihim with the regional Field Offices, regional directors kahapon, kami po ay mabibigyan lamang po  until third week of this month para iconclude ang aming mga isinasagawang payouts. So mangilan-ngilan na lang po ito,” she told the DZBB in an interview. 

(Based on the consultation made by our Good Secretary with the regional Field Offices, regional directors yesterday, we are given until third week of this month to conclude the payouts. These are only few.) 

Dumlao said they are currently conducting manual payout for the remaining second tranche beneficiaries of SAP 2. 

“Ito po yung mga beneficiaries na nagkaroon po ng data quality issues or kulang ang information na ibinigay kagaya ng middle name or mali po or napagpalit ng mobile numbers,” she said. 

(These are beneficiaries who encountered data quality issues or who failed to supply the necessary information such as the middle name or they supplied wrong numbers or changed their numbers.) 

“Ang ginawa po natin, base na rin sa recommendation ng ating mga regional directors at ng mga ibang local government units, magconduct ng manual paypout, considering the complexities of the processing with our financial service providers,” Dumlao noted. 

(What we did based on the recommendation of our regional directors and other local government units, we decided to conduct manual payout, considering the complexities of the processing with our financial service providers.)  

According to her, the manual payouts are being conducted in CALABARZON, National Capital Region (NCR) and Central Luzon through the agency’s Special Disbursing Officers (SDO). 

"Ang second tranche ay para sa mga nakatira sa mga (The second tranche is for those living in) areas identified as ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) areas still as of May 2020, not duplicates— meaning they have not availed of more than one emergency subsidy package, and were validated to be eligible,” Dumlao noted. 

The 11 areas covered by SAP 2 are Region III, except Aurora province, the National Capital Region (NCR); CALABARZON; Benguet; Pangasinan; Iloilo; Cebu Province; Bacolod City; Davao City, Albay province and Zamboanga City. 

For the second tranche, the DSWD has distributed P90.7 billion worth of emergency cash subsidies through manual and digital payouts to 14.5 million family-beneficiaries, as of January 25, 2021, Dumlao disclosed. 

While, for the first tranche, the DSWD disbursed almost P99.3 billion to over 17.6 million poor households, she said.