Senators want LGUs to distribute cash

MANILA, Philippines — Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s fear of local officials’ shenanigans involving the cash aid meant for 18 million households across the country, some senators insisted that it would be better for local government units (LGUs) to distribute the money rather than the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“They know better the demographics in their respective communities,” Sen. Francis Tolentino, chair of the Senate local government committee, told journalists. “Mechanisms are already in place. [LGUs] should be given a greater role as they have more personnel on the ground.”

Already, local officials have been complaining about the “quota system” that the DSWD imposed in allotting a fixed amount for every town and city from the P200-billion Social Amelioration Program provided in Republic Act No. 11469, or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which envisions each family-beneficiary getting P5,000 to P8,000 in financial aid from the government for two months.

The senator, a former mayor of Tagaytay City, suggested that the DSWD should consider tapping rural banks and other financial institutions to make the cash distribution easier and more transparent.

‘Recurring mistake’

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said it was wrong for the government to carry out the program using a “top-down mode of listing and distribution of funds” instead of a “bottom-up approach,” which let LGUs submit the list of recipients of the cash aid.

“This is a recurring mistake… [T]here is an obvious disconnect between the national government and the needs and priorities of the rightful recipients,” Lacson said in a Viber message. “We should all learn from Albert Einstein when he defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”

Lacson said he saw the importance of grassroots-level organizations when he was tasked to lead the rehabilitation of areas ravaged by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in 2013.

“More than the central government, the LGUs have a better grasp of their constituents’ needs through their community-based surveys being undertaken periodically,” he said.

‘Imperfect system’

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, on the other hand, said the absence of a national database to identify families qualified to receive the dole “will always yield to an imperfect system.”

The spending measure, which Congress passed during a marathon special session on March 24, was intended to help families of daily wage earners, workers employed in “no work, no pay” schemes and those in the informal sector who lost their income because of restrictions imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19.

“Distributing cash aid in one week to 18 million families who do not have ATMs and [without] a national database is no easy feat. How do you find them? How do you validate them? How do you avoid duplication?” Gatchalian said. “This should be a partnership with the LGUs and national government, wherein the LGUs will provide the on-the-ground manpower and knowledge while the national government will do the validation and distribution.”