DICT finalizing ReliefAgad app to speed up cash aid distribution

According to President Rodrigo Duterte’s fourth weekly report submitted to Congress, the DICT is in the process of completing the requirements for the implementation of ReliefAgad “to fast-track the disbursement of the SAPs allowances” to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. (File Photo: Department of Information and Communications Technology – DICT/Facebook)

MANILA – The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is finalizing the computer-based application ReliefAgad to expedite the distribution of cash assistance under the government’s various social amelioration programs (SAPs).

According to President Rodrigo Duterte’s fourth weekly report submitted to Congress, the DICT is in the process of completing the requirements for the implementation of ReliefAgad “to fast-track the disbursement of the SAPs allowances” to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

Among the SAPs currently being implemented are: the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Program (AICS) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD); the Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) for affected formal workers, the CAMP Abot-Kamay at Pagtulong (AKAP) for displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE); and the financial subsidy for rice farmers of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

The report showed that as of April 18, around 4,054,360 beneficiaries were served under the AICS; 237,653 affected formal workers served under CAMP; 178,549 displaced workers served under TUPAD; 86,054 applications received and 3,245 approved under CAMP AKAP; and 52,043 beneficiaries for DA’s financial subsidy for rice farmers.

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies is also currently providing local government units with community-based monitoring system data to generate the list of households eligible to receive assistance from the government’s SAPs and other local safety nets.

Under the “Bayanihan to Heal as One’ law, the executive department must submit a weekly report to Congress, every Monday, detailing how the President used his special powers to address Covid-19.

The report must include the amount and corresponding utilization of funds used, augmented, reprogrammed, reallocated, and realigned.