By Charissa Luci-Atienza The number of beneficiaries who received multiple assistance during the first phase of the implementation of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) has increased to over 51,000, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said on Tuesday. DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista
(PCOO / MANILA BULLETIN) DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista said they found around 51, 563 "duplicate" beneficiaries for the first tranche. "Base sa post validation na ginagawa ng field offices ay mayroon ng 51, 563 recipients ng first tranche ng SAP ang may nakitang duplikasyon, nakatanggap din ng ayuda galing sa ibang ahensiya ng gobyerno," he said during the "Laging Handa" network briefing. (Based on the post validation being conducted by the field offices, we found 51, 563 duplicate recipients for the first tranche of SAP. They received cash aid from other agencies of the government.) The DSWD Chief said they are continuously intensifying their validation and deduplication efforts to come up with a "clean list" of SAP beneficiaries for the second tranche, which is expected to benefit 17 million low-income family-beneficiaries, including the five million "waitlisted" beneficiaries. In a virtual press briefing last June 16, Bautista disclosed that based on their validation and deduplication process, around 22,868 beneficiaries have "received multiple assistance from other government agencies, while others are ineligible." During the network briefing, he assured Lipa Mayor Eric Africa that the distribution of the second wave of subsidies in Region IV-A (Calabarzon) will start as soon as they complete their validation and deduplication process. "Kinukuha lang namin talaga ang clean list. Kailangan maingat tayo sa validation kasi malaki 'yung mga nagkakaron ng duplication," Bautista said. (We are just securing the clean list. We have to be careful in our validation because we have uncovered a big number of duplicates.) Malacañang had assured the public that the distribution of SAP 2 will be faster once the deduplication process is completed. "Hopefully, within this week or by next week umpisahan natin yung pamamahagi ng second tranche para sa ating beneficiaries (we can start the distribution of second tranche for the beneficiaries) . Alam naman natin na ang Region IV-A ay mabibigyan sa second tranche (We know that Region IV-A will be given the second tranche)," he added. He said the SAP payouts to waitlisted beneficiaries are ongoing in Region I (Ilocos) and Region III (Central Luzon), particularly in Pampanga, apart from the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). The 11 areas covered by SAP 2 are Region III, except Aurora province, the National Capital Region (NCR), Calabarzon, Benguet, Pangasinan, Iloilo, Cebu Province, Bacolod City, Davao City, Albay Province, and Zamboanga City. Bautista noted that more than P6.746 billion worth of second tranche of cash subsidies have been distributed. The first recipients of SAP 2 included 1,336, 635 beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) who are cash card holders. Last June 16, the DSWD conducted the SAP payout to waitlisted beneficiaries in Kapangan, Benguet, and Baguio City. Around 266 families from Kapangan, Benguet and 290 families from Baguio City received P5,500 each during the June 16 pilot payout activities, the DSWD said. Bautista took the opportunity to ask the local government units (LGUs) to continuously assist the DSWD in distributing the second tranche of emergency subsidies. "Alam naman natin kung gaano ka-importante ang lokal na pamahalaan dahil sila talaga ang nakakalaalam at kung anong magandang mekanismo para mapabilis ang pagbibigay ng ayuda lalo na kung ang mode ng payment ay direct payment, o house-to-house or big venue payout," he said. (We know how important the role of the local goverments is because they know their constituents and they know the better mechanism to help expedite the distribution of the assistance, especially if the mode of payment is direct payment, or house-to-house or big venue payout.) During the network briefing, Bautista said around 1, 215 LGUs have submitted their complete liquidation reports, while 254 submitted their partial liquidation reports. He had earlier said over P99.8 billion worth of the first tranche of SAP subsidies have been distributed to 17.65 million beneficiaries.