The local government units (LGUs) have disbursed almost P3 billion worth of financial aid to over 2.9 million low-income earners affected by the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR)-plus, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said on Wednesday, April 14.
DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao noted that as of 1 p.m., April 14, a total of 2,983,424 beneficiaries or 13 percent of the 22.9 million people targeted to receive the aid in the NCR, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal have been served.
She said the supplemental aid disbursed totals P2,983,424,000.
The DILG report showed that the NCR’s payout rate rose to 20.78 percent from 16.48 percent recorded as of April 13. The LGUs in NCR distributed P2.3-billion aid to 2,321,921 beneficiaries. There are 11,172,988 target recipients in NCR.
In terms of distribution rate, NCR was followed by Rizal with 354,212 served beneficiaries out of its targeted 2,612,824 recipients. The payout rate in Rizal was placed at 13.56 percent.
Meanwhile, a total of 128,883 low-income people have received their assistance in Laguna. The aid disbursed amounted to over P128.8 million.
Bulacan and Cavite both recorded almost 3-percent payout rate. Bulacan LGUs disbursed more than P83.9 million-aid to 83,996 beneficiaries, while Cavite LGUs distributed P94.4 million worth of assistance to their 94,412 low-income constituents.
On Tuesday night, April 13, the DSWD reported that the number of low-income beneficiaries receiving the aid in NCR-plus has increased to over 2.2 million or almost 10 percent of the total targeted recipients.
The DSWD rushed Wednesday, April 14, in defense of LGUs in the NCR-plus that were slammed over the supposed slow distribution of the government’s one-time financial aid to low-income people affected by the ECQ.
Read more: LGUs ‘doing their best’ to quickly distribute ‘ayuda’ in NCR+ — DSWD