The San Juan City local government started on Thursday, April 8, the disbursement of the P98 million financial cash assistance the city received from the national government for its citizens to help them amid the ongoing Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila.
The first payout was conducted in Barangay St. Joseph, and was witnessed by San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora, National Action Plan Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Vince Dizon, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Undersecretary Feliciano Bodiongan, and San Juan City DILG Director Sylvestre Barrameda.
The cash assistance was distributed by the staff of the City Treasury Department and the City Social Welfare and Development Department.
“We opted to distribute the ECQ ayuda in cash instead of “in kind” to give our beneficiaries flexibility because there may be other essentials like maintenance medicines and vitamins that they may need to buy and we wanted it to be given immediately to those whose lives have been greatly affected by the ECQ for the last two weeks,” Zamora said.
“But we also have to ensure that the beneficiaries will be safe while getting their respective ayuda. There will also be uniformed personnel from the San Juan PNP and BFP to help us ensure that physical distancing and other health and safety protocols are strictly observed during the event," he added.
Those in the official list are the beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP 1 and 2) last year, including those who were wait-listed and the 4Ps.
The city also aims to include other low income individuals in the list of beneficiaries, pending verification and depending also on how much funds are still available after the initial disbursements to the priority sectors.
Zamora said that a maximum of 50 individuals will only be allowed to enter the disbursement venue every hour to avoid overcrowding of people and to ensure that the safety health protocols will still be observed.
After Barangay St. Joseph, Barangays Maytunas, Isabelita and Addition Hills will be the next beneficiaries of the ECQ Cash Ayuda.