The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said it is working to plug gaps in its public utility vehicle (PUV) cash aid list, with more than 170,000 unlisted drivers being validated for possible inclusion in a special payout after Holy Week.

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said on Monday, March 30, that the agency is conducting additional validation and coordination with transport groups and local government units (LGUs) to ensure that eligible drivers who were either unlisted or unable to claim assistance are not left out of the program.

He said the payout will include individuals who were already listed but were unable to claim their assistance, as well as those under a supplemental list of additional beneficiaries not originally included for various reasons.

In a press briefing with Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Board Member Greg Pua and Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Supervising Director Carlo Murcia, Gatchalian said that as of March 29, a total of 256,040 drivers in Metro Manila have received P5,000 each under the DSWD’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) program.

The payouts have so far reached tricycle drivers, service delivery riders, transport network vehicle service (TNVS) drivers, public utility jeepney drivers, and motorcycle taxi riders.

Of the total beneficiaries, 102,824 are tricycle drivers, 86,268 are service delivery riders, 22,937 are TNVS drivers, 22,031 are public utility jeepney drivers, and 21,980 are motorcycle taxi riders.

The DSWD said the total disbursement has reached about P1.28 billion, nearing the P1.5 billion allocation for the first phase of the Metro Manila rollout.

To address remaining gaps, Gatchalian said a special payout will be conducted after Holy Week to accommodate both unclaimed assistance and drivers not included in the initial validated lists.

For tricycle drivers, all 17 local government units (LGUs) in Metro Manila have been directed to coordinate with tricycle operators and drivers associations (TODAs) to submit supplemental lists by April 1.

“After the payout, we already gave them time to submit additional lists as there were missing names. That process took some time. We instructed them to thoroughly review their records and submit the TODAs that were left out,” Gatchalian said.

For public utility jeepney drivers, the DSWD and LTFRB will deploy 17 help teams across Metro Manila to reconcile discrepancies in submitted beneficiary lists.

“Tomorrow, the LTFRB and DSWD will deploy 17 help teams to different LGUs. We asked LGUs to gather all their JODA associations in one room, like a tutorial service, where we will call them one by one. We will compare their list with the list of those who have already been paid. We will then go through the discrepancies one by one to determine why they were not included. We will review everything thoroughly. This is part of our campaign that no driver will be left behind,” Gatchalian said.

The agency also continues to coordinate with transport network companies (TNCs), motorcycle taxi operators, and delivery service providers to complete remaining lists of app-based and delivery riders.

According to Pua, transport network companies have submitted an additional 53,000 TNVS drivers, with 24,000 identified as duplicates and 29,000 still under verification.

For motorcycle taxis, 81,000 additional names were submitted, with 3,000 duplicates and 78,000 under validation.

The DICT said around 63,000 additional riders from Private Express and Messengerial Delivery Service firms have also been submitted for verification.