MANILA, Philippines — Nearly 50 percent of the 93,000 families in Pasig City covered by the national government’s social amelioration program (SAP) have so far received their initial P8,000 cash assistance, according to Mayor Vico Sotto.
“We’re almost at 50 percent. In less than a week, we will be able to finish our distribution of [cash aid from] DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), our national government’s SAP,” he said in an online press conference hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) on Wednesday.
In a radio interview on April 15, Sotto earlier said that the city government could not yet start the distribution of the cash aid since the DSWD at that time has yet to release its validated list of recipients for the program.
According to Sotto, once all 93,000 families covered by the national government’s SAP have received their initial cash assistance, then the city government can start handing out its own supplemental SAP.
Under the local government unit’s (LGU) supplemental SAP, each of around 150,000 families in the city who also need assistance but was not covered by the national government’s program will receive a one-time P8,000 cash aid.
Some P1.2 billion worth of funds have been earmarked by the city government for its own version of the SAP.
The second batch of the DSWD’s social amelioration package—or another P8,000 for each of the 93,000 poor families—will be given to qualified beneficiaries in Pasig City in May. The distribution may take at least a week, according to Sotto.
The neophyte mayor also noted that the list of validated beneficiaries given by the DSWD to the Pasig LGU has some missing details.
“It’s a bit frustrating but I understand. They are also swamped with work they are trying to do the best they can. There are some minor details like that [that are missing] that are somehow frustrating but now is not the time to point fingers,” he said.
“Whatever they gave us, the list that they gave us, we will do our best along with our barangay governments to distribute the SAP fund properly and as fast as we can so that we can start with our supplemental SAP,” he added.
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