The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) announced Friday, June 18, that the payout for unserved second tranche and waitlisted beneficiaries of the national government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP) in Manila City has been rescheduled for a later date.
DSWD National Capital Region (NCR) Regional Director Vicente Gregorio “Vic” Tomas said the decision was arrived at after many residents flocked to payout venue in high hopes of receiving their cash aid.
“Maganda at well-coordinated naman po with the LGU of Manila and DSWD NCR ang payout activity. Unfortunately, marami pa rin nagbakasakali sa mga residents sa area na makatanggap sila ng SAP (The payout activity is good and well-coordinated with the LGU of Manila and DSWD NCR. Unfortunately, many residents in the area are still hoping to receive the SAP),” he told the Manila Bulletin in a Viber message.
“Dahil sa pagdagsa ng tao nag decision ang LGU Manila to stop the payout to avoid health hazards and rescheduled the payout activity for a later date (Due to the influx of people, the Manila LGU has decided to stop the payout to avoid health hazards and rescheduled the payout activity for a later date),” Tomas said.
He said the DSWD-NCR will take the cue from the Manila LGU as far as the new schedule of the SAP payout is concerned.
In its Facebook post on Thursday, June 17, the DSWD-NCR announced the Emergency Subsidy Program (ESP)- SAP payout in the city of Manila on Friday, June 18, at 8 a.m.
Those unserved waitlisted beneficiaries from the fifth district of Manila were instructed to go to Manila High School in Intramuros, Manila to receive their cash aid.
Many residents were seen flocking to the Manila High School in hopes of receiving their SAP.
While, the payout of those second tranche beneficiaries from Districts 1,2,3, 4, 5 and 6 was set at the UDM Covered Court.
During the Laging Handa networking briefing early February, DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista bared that they retrieved all the necessary data from the financial service providers (FSPs) and decided to conduct manual payout.
Related story: https://mb.com.ph/2021/02/03/dswd-urges-unserved-sap-beneficiaries-to-go-to-nearest-field-offices-for-validation/
In April, the DSWD terminated its engagement with FSPs and decided to conduct manual payouts for unserved SAP beneficiaries.
Under Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, around 18 million low-income households are entitled to receive their emergency subsidy amounting to P5,000 to P8,000 for two months.
The DSWD had noted that for the first tranche of SAP, it disbursed P99.9 billion to over 17.6 million family beneficiaries.
For the second tranche, it distributed over P87 billion worth of emergency cash subsidies through manual and digital payouts to 14.5 million family-beneficiaries.