Less than half of subsidy doled out

COME HELL OR HIGH WATER Members of the Coast Guard handout frozen food to water-edge dwellers on Manila Bay in Tondo, Manila, on Monda, April 27, 2020. (Photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — The poor in some parts of the country have yet to receive cash assistance from the government because the high rate of coronavirus infections in those places is keeping local government and social workers out, Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Bautista said on Monday.

Three days before the end of the original Luzon lockdown, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has distributed only P39.5 billion to 7.7 million impoverished families badly hit by the quarantine imposed by President Duterte to halt the spread of the new coronavirus in the Philippines.

This means that the DSWD, through local governments, has given out less than half of the P100-billion first tranche of the government’s social amelioration program as the first month of the lockdown rolls to an end.

More than 10 million families eligible for emergency assistance are also still empty-handed.

Problems at local level

In a press briefing on Monday, Bautista admitted that the payout was delayed due to various problems at the local level.

“In some areas affected by COVID, payout cannot be immediately implemented. The local government itself cautioned us to stay away since our personnel might be infected,” he said, referring to the severe respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

“We also have front-liners [who] are already infected, so their [colleagues] have to be placed on quarantine. So we have a reduced workforce,” he added.

Bautista did not give specific details about these incidents. But on Monday, the Inquirer reported the case of Annabeth Cuizon, acting head of the Lapu-Lapu City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) Office, who found social workers in her office being denied the use of a vehicle because they were working with her. Cuizon had tested positive but asymptomatic.

The Inquirer asked the DSWD for more information, but it had not responded as of press time on Monday night.The DSWD chief also said cash aid was more difficult to distribute in remote areas, especially island and coastal municipalities.

These delays could spill into the second tranche of the cash aid for May, as local governments would first need to liquidate the distribution of the first tranche of subsidies.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año gave local governments up to April 30 to complete the distribution of the cash aid.

The DSWD has already given the funds to the local governments “so there is no reason” for the financial aid not to reach the beneficiaries, Año said in a statement on Monday.

List of beneficiaries

Meanwhile, Vice President Leni Robredo has joined local government officials in calling for the release of the list of beneficiaries of the cash aid.

Robredo said local officials, particularly village chairs and mayors, bore the brunt of the public’s anger and dismay, even if they had no power to make decisions concerning the emergency subsidy program.

“I think there is a need to be more transparent and [to have] better coordination [between] the national government and the local governments on the recipients of the aid,” she said.

Sen. Grace Poe appealed to the government to ensure the swift release of cash aid to millions of tricycle drivers who lost their livelihood in the coronavirus lockdown.

Poe, chair of the Senate public services committee, said the tricycle drivers would not be able to return to work longer after President Duterte extended the lockdown in Metro Manila and other high-risk areas to May 15.

She said the National Confederation of Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations of the Philippines had reported that many of its 2.9 million members had so far “received measly or partial subsidy, if not none, from the government.”

“We should not make them wait any further. Their perseverance to bring us even to remote areas must now be repaid with prompt aid,” Poe said in a statement on Monday.

“They have spared us from having to walk long distances to our homes even in harsh conditions. They do not deserve to wait in line for a day more to get aid,” she added.

—WITH REPORTS FROM JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND MARLON RAMOS