By Rizal Obanil Owners of micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs), who belong to the middle class, will receive aid from the government through the “Small Business Wage Subsidy Program.” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III (Bloomberg photo) Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Sonny Dominguez in an interview by CNN Philippines said the programs’ beneficiaries will receive the financial aid via their SSS UMID cards, bank accounts, or e-wallets.  The financial assistance will be distributed from May 1 to 15 and from May 16 to 30. The aid for the MSME sector comes at a time when there is an ongoing rift on social media between the “poorest of the poor” and the middle class. Netizens, who identify themselves as middle class, are lamenting the seeming lack of government programs specifically targeting the middle class while the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is in effect. This sentiment has been echoed by many netizens who are now criticizing the social amelioration program, which aims to distribute a financial aid of P5,000 to P8,000 to poor families who inadvertently have been denied a means of living due to the Luzon-wide ECQ. As a result, many have aired their side on social media demanding the same form of aid for the middle class whom many claim have also been financially affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic  and are the ones who contribute the most to government funds in the form of taxes. Dominguez in a previous interview said that the proposed financial aid for the middle class akin to the one being given to the poor is unlikely to be approved “at this point in time.”