Solon wants security guards, househelp included in gov’t aid

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker proposed on Monday the inclusion of security guards and kasambahays, and other lower middle income segments to the national government’s social amelioration program (SAP) amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Agusan del Norte 1st District Rep. Lawrence Fortun said the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) should use already existing databases for specific individual beneficiaries among the poor and lower middle income segments of the country.

This includes the following lists:

SSS-registered kasambahays;
PNP SOSIA registry of licensed security guards;
CHED, SUC and LUC enrollment lists of indigent and low-income students in public and private colleges;
DepEd list of Education Service Contracting (ESC) voucher beneficiaries
Cooperative Development Authority lists of low-income individual members of cooperatives; and
DTI Small Business Corporation lists of microlending beneficiaries
“I believe these databases are objective sources of names of citizens who are among the lower middle income households. These databases exist and have been vetted beforehand or have some means of sorting out target beneficiaries for other assistance programs,” Fortun said in a statement.

The DSWD said it based its identification of the 18 million families covered by the SAP on the department’s “Listahanan” program back in 2015. Also considered was the projected population growth through the Philippine Statistics Data.

Local government units are also asked to submit a list of beneficiaries in their communities, subject to the approval of DSWD. Thus, only those approved will receive subsidy under SAP.

However, according to Fortun, the databases for the current government assistance measures are “not interfaced” so various government agencies such as the DSWD, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Transportation are “having a difficult time knowing which families are getting cash aid over and over again.”

“In the process, while some people receive from more, others may be deprived. The forms for the Social Amelioration Card were not distributed and used as planned,” Fortun said.

Fortun said that funds can be sourced from the cash the Bangko Sentral transferred to the Bureau of Treasury.

Section 4 (c) of Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act which tackles the provision of an emergency subsidy to around 18 million low income households in the country affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The subsidy amounts to P5,000 to P8,000 a month for two months and is computed based on the “prevailing regional minimum wage rates.”

EDV