MANILA – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Monday that the 3.5 million low-income families living in areas placed under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) but did not make it to the initial list of beneficiaries will receive the first and second tranches of the government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP) this June.
DSWD Undersecretary for special concerns Camilo Gudmalin explained that the 3.5 million families were among the 5 million additional low-income families approved by President Rodrigo Duterte to avail of the financial assistance program.
“The 3.5 million will receive both the first and second tranche of SAP,” he shared in an interview with the Philippine News Agency.
The 3.5 million families are part of the 5 million families who applied for the SAP grant since they were not included or qualified in the list submitted by their respective local government unit (LGUs) for the distribution of the first tranche in April this year.
The areas covered by the second tranche will be based on Executive Order 112, series of 2020 dated May 1.
These areas include Central Luzon except Aurora Province, National Capital Region (NCR), Calabarzon, Benguet, Pangasinan, Iloilo, Cebu Province, Bacolod City and Davao City.
Albay Province and Zamboanga City will also be covered by the second tranche based on the memorandum signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on May 2.
In a statement released earlier Monday, DSWD said it is now in the process of preparing for the distribution of emergency cash subsidy to the 5 million “waitlisted” families.
DSWD reminded LGUs to identify eligible low-income families, validated and assessed to be financially and economically affected by the declaration of community quarantine but were not included in the initial 18 million family beneficiaries of SAP for the first tranche.
Swift process
The beneficiaries and some 1.5 million other families (of the additional 5 million) living in areas that are under general community quarantine will receive their SAP assistance this June along with the 8.5 million families who also received the first tranche of the cash aid.
DSWD Spokesperson Irene Dumlao said in a Viber message that the aid will be distributed completely by June.
“We encourage all beneficiaries to self-register in ReliefAgad. May interface yun sa online/digital wallets, banks or they may opt to receive via actual payout. Mabilis ang process ng payout using this platform (They have an interface on online/digital wallets, banks. Payout process is faster using this platform),” she said.
Since the launch of ReliefAgad app in a virtual presser last May 14, the platform has accumulated over 2 million registrations from all 17 regions nationwide.
Despite conducting pilot runs in NCR, regions nationwide facilitated encoding of SAC forms through ReliefAgad app.
Calabarzon, with 1,094,332 registrations, recorded the highest, followed by NCR with 789,719, and Central Luzon with 103,413.
Despite reaching 2 million registrations, the challenge lies in reaching the rest of the second tranche beneficiaries coming from 11 identified areas: NCR, Central Luzon (except Aurora Province), Calabarzon, Benguet province, Pangasinan, Iloilo Province, Cebu Province, Bacolod City, Davao City, Albay Province, and Zamboanga City and as well as the left out families nationwide.
On the directive of President Duterte, DSWD will lead the distribution of the second tranche of SAP.
The department will also seek the assistance of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), particularly female soldiers, in the distribution of the cash subsidy.