Tiangco donates pay until June 2022 to non-SAP beneficiaries

Toby Tiangco

Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco announced on Sunday that he would be donating his paycheck starting this month until the end of his term in June 2022 to the families in the city who would be left out of the national government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

According to Tiangco, he was leaving it to the City Social Welfare and Development Office to decide whether to divide his salary over the next 27 months—which would total P3.2 million—among 400 or 800 families.

“I asked them to think carefully, especially on the amount that would be given per family,” he said.

He added that he would shoulder the P3.2 million for now so that the money could be distributed immediately. He earns P121,918.88 per month as city mayor.

Tiangco admitted, however, that even his salary would not be enough to provide for the thousands of families in the city still struggling to make ends meet amid the Luzon-wide lockdown, which President Duterte extended until May 15.

“For example, if they decide on [giving] P8,000 per family, that would only be 411 families. If it’s P4,000 per family, then it’s 822,” he said.

At the same time, Tiangco asked those who would not be picked not to get angry as he cited the local government’s limited resources.

Distribution of the P8,000 cash assistance under the SAP to low-income families in the city began on April 18.

Although the city government was allowed to print up to 70,000 social amelioration cards, Tiangco said the supposed “quota” was at 27,978 families, excluding beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps.

As of last Friday, only 1,682 beneficiaries had received the cash aid, which the national government had targeted for completion by the end of the month.Earlier this month, all 18 Metro Manila mayors called on the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the agency in charge of the SAP, to reinstate the original number of beneficiaries instead of relying on the 2015 census. INQ