Navotas mayor Tiangco explains reasons for delay in SAP distribution
Published Apr 30, 2020 12:00 am
By Joseph Almer Pedrajas
Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco expressed his frustration at the national government in distributing the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) cash aid for allegedly causing delays in the process.
Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO) Tiangco on Thursday, April 30, pointed out that both the Department of Social Welfare and Development's (DSWD) tedious requirements and the Department of Education's (DepEd) slow response were some of the reasons why the local government was not able to completely distribute the financial assistance immediately. "Pagkatapos DSWD, sino ba bibigyan namin dito. Doon medyo natagalan, kasi sabi nila yung 4P’s tanggalin nyo. Tapos, sabi nila, yung mga nabigyan ng LTFRB, tanggalin nyo. Tapos, sabi nila, tanggalin yung pensioner. Eh wala naman kaming list ng pensioner, paano namin tatanggalin yun. Doon palang matagal na," he said over the radio interview. (After we gave the list of residents to DSWD, we asked who will be receiving the cash aid. That was when the delays began. They told us to remove from the list residents who are members of 4Ps, those who have been given aid by the LTFRB, and those who are pensioners. But we don't have a list of pensioners. How would we do that? The process was already delayed because of that.) Tiangco said that he then tried to ask the department if they could only provide the master list of their 'LISTAHANAN,' a list of poor households, so the local government could take care of filtering qualified residents, but the agency refused to do so. "Di ko maintidihan... Sabi ibibigay naman, kaya lang may Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) tayong pipirmahan. Sabi ko MOA, eh ipapamigay namin pondo nyo bakit kailangan ipa MOA pa natin...Ano ba klaseng bureaucracy yan," he added. (I could not understand. They told us that they would give the list only after signing a memorandum of agreement. I told them, why the need for MOA if it's your funds that we're going to distribute? What kind of bureaucracy is that?) On the other hand, Tiangco said that when they were ready to distribute the cash aid, the DepEd did not immediately allow them to use schools as their venue. "Isa pang naging problema namin, syempre you have to practice social distancing. So kailangan malaking venue. Ang problema naman itong DepEd...gumawa sila ng guidelines, di pwedeng gamitin yung school," he said. "So isipin nyo, sumulat ako sa DepEd, April 17, pinayagan lang ako April 23 sa venue." (Another problem that we had, of course, was that you have to practice social distancing. So we needed a big venue. The problem was, the DepEd came up with guidelines prohibiting the use of schools. So, come to think of it, I wrote a letter to them for appeal. That's on April 17. They only allowed me on April 23) The local government units have been given until today, Thursday, to complete the distribution of financial aid from the DSWD to their qualified constituents. Tiangco said it is "easy to be done" if they "don't have to screen them." "Ang gusto ba nila bilisan lang ng bilisan pero wag siguraduhin yung qualified lang makatanggap?" he asked. “Ako mas gusto ko na na kasalanan na mabagal kaming nagdistribute, kesa sa maraming nakalusot. Mas kaya ko nang sagutin kung bakit mabagal pero ayaw kong sagutin kung bakit marami kayong nabigyan na hindi qualified," he added. (Do they want us to simply expedite the process without screening who is qualified? For me, I’d rather be at fault for distributing late, or risk distributing to those who are not qualified. I can take on answering why we’re late in distributing rather than come up with reasons why we handed out aid to those who aren’t qualified.)
Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO) Tiangco on Thursday, April 30, pointed out that both the Department of Social Welfare and Development's (DSWD) tedious requirements and the Department of Education's (DepEd) slow response were some of the reasons why the local government was not able to completely distribute the financial assistance immediately. "Pagkatapos DSWD, sino ba bibigyan namin dito. Doon medyo natagalan, kasi sabi nila yung 4P’s tanggalin nyo. Tapos, sabi nila, yung mga nabigyan ng LTFRB, tanggalin nyo. Tapos, sabi nila, tanggalin yung pensioner. Eh wala naman kaming list ng pensioner, paano namin tatanggalin yun. Doon palang matagal na," he said over the radio interview. (After we gave the list of residents to DSWD, we asked who will be receiving the cash aid. That was when the delays began. They told us to remove from the list residents who are members of 4Ps, those who have been given aid by the LTFRB, and those who are pensioners. But we don't have a list of pensioners. How would we do that? The process was already delayed because of that.) Tiangco said that he then tried to ask the department if they could only provide the master list of their 'LISTAHANAN,' a list of poor households, so the local government could take care of filtering qualified residents, but the agency refused to do so. "Di ko maintidihan... Sabi ibibigay naman, kaya lang may Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) tayong pipirmahan. Sabi ko MOA, eh ipapamigay namin pondo nyo bakit kailangan ipa MOA pa natin...Ano ba klaseng bureaucracy yan," he added. (I could not understand. They told us that they would give the list only after signing a memorandum of agreement. I told them, why the need for MOA if it's your funds that we're going to distribute? What kind of bureaucracy is that?) On the other hand, Tiangco said that when they were ready to distribute the cash aid, the DepEd did not immediately allow them to use schools as their venue. "Isa pang naging problema namin, syempre you have to practice social distancing. So kailangan malaking venue. Ang problema naman itong DepEd...gumawa sila ng guidelines, di pwedeng gamitin yung school," he said. "So isipin nyo, sumulat ako sa DepEd, April 17, pinayagan lang ako April 23 sa venue." (Another problem that we had, of course, was that you have to practice social distancing. So we needed a big venue. The problem was, the DepEd came up with guidelines prohibiting the use of schools. So, come to think of it, I wrote a letter to them for appeal. That's on April 17. They only allowed me on April 23) The local government units have been given until today, Thursday, to complete the distribution of financial aid from the DSWD to their qualified constituents. Tiangco said it is "easy to be done" if they "don't have to screen them." "Ang gusto ba nila bilisan lang ng bilisan pero wag siguraduhin yung qualified lang makatanggap?" he asked. “Ako mas gusto ko na na kasalanan na mabagal kaming nagdistribute, kesa sa maraming nakalusot. Mas kaya ko nang sagutin kung bakit mabagal pero ayaw kong sagutin kung bakit marami kayong nabigyan na hindi qualified," he added. (Do they want us to simply expedite the process without screening who is qualified? For me, I’d rather be at fault for distributing late, or risk distributing to those who are not qualified. I can take on answering why we’re late in distributing rather than come up with reasons why we handed out aid to those who aren’t qualified.)