MANILA, Philippines — A civil society organization on Friday urged the government to explore “more universal” approaches in the implementation of its social amelioration program in order to help more families amid the COVID-19 lockdown.
According to Social Watch Philippines (SWP), the government should automatically include households in impoverished areas in its cash aid project instead of considering only the “most deserving families” – or those severely affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
SWP co-convener Dr. Ma. Victoria Raquiza said the government should instead hasten and widen its targeting modes, like considering households in fourth to sixth class barangays as automatically qualified for the social amelioration program.
“In doing so, there is no need to conduct a means test or validation process per family, thereby expediting the provision of assistance,” she explained.
“This type of targeting will be administratively easier because the government will be dealing with a smaller population size. This promotes administrative ease for many LGUs which are already overburdened and stretched to capacity,” she added.
Raquiza further justified such an approach, emphasizing that a lot of families have been affected by the work suspension due to the strict quarantine that was imposed to contain the spread of the virus.
As statistics present an uptrend in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, the government was forced to place Luzon under the enhanced community quarantine. This scheme allows only those in frontline services like hospitals, food deliveries and production, and law enforcement agencies, among others, to continue operations.
Majority, especially those who rely on daily wages and whose jobs cannot adopt to a work-from-home scheme, were left without any income since the lockdown was imposed in March. The government extended the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine up to April 30.
“Now is not the time to fine-tune the criteria of who is deserving of government aid and who is not. During this period of intensified and widespread poverty, they are all deserving,” Raquiza pointed out.
While the government promised P5,000-P8,000 financial assistance to 18 million families – as mandated by Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act – problems have been encountered in the distribution of the cash subsidy.
The main issue seemed to emanate from the differing list of beneficiaries between the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the lead agency in the distribution of the social amelioration program, and local government units (LGUs).
DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista said they are validating the beneficiaries to prevent a duplication of awarded benefits since it is possible that some might have already received assistance from other government agencies.
These issues, according to SWP, makes government response slow and “bureaucratic”, whereas self-targeting and automatic inclusion for households in poor barangays would help LGUs fast-track the list of beneficiaries.
“We urge the government to explore utilizing a combination of the geographic and self-targeting approach in the implementation of [social amelioration program] to expedite the provision of public aid,” Raquiza said.