Vice President Leni Robredo urged the government to distribute the cash assistance to lower-income families or those who do not have enough savings to tide them over during the week-long enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
The most restrictive ECQ will be effective starting Monday, March 29, until Easter Sunday, April 4, in the areas under the NCR Plus bubble.
Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, and Bulacan are the areas to be covered by the ECQ.
Robredo said those to be affected by the ECQ should receive the financial
assistance while the strictest quarantine is still in effect.
“Kailangan may ayuda dun sa mga walang tira. Gusto kong sabihin kapag hindi magtrabaho ay walang kakainin iyong pamilya (There should be assistance to those without savings. What I mean is for those who if they don’t work, their families have nothing to eat),” she said during her Sunday radio show, “BISErbisyong Leni.”
“Sana iyong ayuda ay ngayon ibigay na habang naka-lockdown para hindi nagpupumilit iyong mga tao lumabas para maghanapbuhay. Pero ang sabi magkakaroon daw. Sana sa lalong madaling panahon (The aid should be given now during the lockdown so the people won’t need to go out to work. But they said there will be. I hope it will be given at the soonest possible time),” Robredo added.
Malacañang assured that cash aid will be distributed to those who are unable to work amid return of NCR Plus to ECQ. The beneficiaries of the first two tranches of the social amelioration program (SAP) will be included.
NCR Plus is under ECQ for one week because of the surge in COVID-19 cases over the past weeks. On March 26, the Philippines logged its highest tally of COVID-19 cases at 9,838, with a positivity rate of 17.3 percent.
Positivity rate is the percentage of positive individuals out of all patients tested in a day. The World Health Organization recommended that the figure should be kept below 5 percent.