By Charissa Luci-Atienza The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) announced that they will virtually launch on Thursday (May 14) afternoon the "ReliefAgad" mobile application that will help expedite the distribution of Social Amelioration Program (SAP) emergency subsidies. "ReliefAgad is a quick relief system that enables DSWD and local government units (LGUs) to expedite the capture of social amelioration card (SAC) details and interface with any electronic payment system for faster cash relief to targeted beneficiaries," it said. In his fourth weekly report to Congress last April 20, President Duterte said the DICT is finalizing the ReliefAgad application “to fast-track the disbursement of the SAP allowances.” "Utilizing the RapidPass platform, ReliefAgad uses a combination of crowdsourcing and manual encoding or batch uploading by LGUs," the DSWD said, adding, "beneficiaries can register and send their details to their LGUs and DSWD" through the mobile application. Developers Connect Philippines founder Winston Damarillo and representatives from DICT and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will join DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista at the launch. In a Facebook post, the DSWD said over 16.6 million beneficiaries of the 18 million low-income households targeted to receive the first tranche of emergency subsidies have received their cash aid. As of 8 p.m., May 12, more than P93.6 billion worth of SAP subsidies have been distributed, it said. The amount is 93.6 percent of the P100 billion allocated for the first wave of cash aid. The DSWD said P75.8 billion has been distributed to 12,507,309 low-income and non-Pantawid Pamilya (4Ps) families, while P17.5 billion has been given to 4,024,123 households that are beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). Bautista earlier said they are exploring ways to expeditiously distribute the cash subsidies after President Duterte directed the DSWD to lead the SAP distribution following the snowballing complaints against the purported irregularities in the release of emergency subsidies. "To ensure the expeditious distribution of second tranche, we are studying to use other digital platforms and the contactless distribution of the cash aid," he said. Bautista said more or less 11.1 million low-income families are expected to receive the second wave of cash aid under SAP. He said the five million "left-out" beneficiaries not included in the master list of beneficiaries for the April emergency subsidies, but are eligible; and the initial SAP beneficiaries in areas which remain under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will be prioritized when the agency distributes the emergency subsidies. "Nire-refer ko po palagi sa resolution ng IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) more or less po aabot sila ng 11.1 million families. Kasama na po dito ang left-out at original na 18 million na nakasama dito sa ECQ," he said in a television interview. (I am always referring to the IATF resolution, more or less there will be 11.1 million beneficiary-families. These include the left-out and the original 18 million which are included in the ECQ.) Under Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, 18 million low-income households are entitled to receive emergency cash subsidies ranging from P5,000 to 8,000, based on the respective regional wage rates for months of April and May.