By Jel Santos The local government of Pasay City is optimistic that it will be able to finish distributing the first tranche of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) subsidy to all 46,000 beneficiaries of the city by May 10, Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano said. Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano (Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN) Recently, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) extended the deadline of distribution to May 10. It was earlier set to end on May 7. Rubiano said the departments of the city government are working round the clock to hand out the SAP fund. As of May 7, nearly 31,000 beneficiaries -- 66.59 percent of the total number of beneficiaries in the city -- have received the P8,000 cash subsidy. “We are optimistic that we will be able to meet the target on May 10, especially after the Department of the Interior and Local Government as well as the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) eased the rules on the way we distribute the cash assistance,” the mayor said. Rubiano promised that there will be no let up in their drive to complete the SAP distribution. Earlier, she said the May 7 deadline earlier given by the DILG was not enough time to cover all the beneficiaries. “We have a total of 201 barangays in our city from which some 46,000 families are to be given P8,000 each under this program. But much as we have been exerting efforts to fast-track this distribution, we also have to undertake extra precautionary measures, considering the increased cases of COVID-19 in some of these barangays, as well as the need to beef up the protection of our people from the risk of contracting the disease,” the mayor said. The DILG earlier said it will allow beneficiaries to get their cash assistance way beyond the curfew hours. Meantime, the DSWD told senior citizens and persons with disability (PWDs) to send their representatives to receive the funds to avoid any untoward incidents while in the queue.