National government agencies have given their local counterparts due consideration to complete the distribution of cash subsidies, acknowledging the latter’s efforts to carry out an added task during a public health emergency.
“We have to understand that we are under an [enhanced community quarantine due to the coronavirus]. What we want is for [the money] to be distributed at the fastest possible time but in the safest possible means,” said Joseph Arceo, spokesperson for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).
The DSWD, which oversees the cash distribution, has allocated P14.62 billion for 2.2 million families hardest hit by the lockdown in the region.
But problems arising from preselecting beneficiaries and the printing of application forms to the actual cash distribution have marred the program’s implementation since early April.
As of Thursday, the DSWD said 72 percent or 1,625,456 families had received the first of the two-tranche cash aid.
Lessons learned
The DSWD has extended the payout’s April 30 deadline for another week.
“Just the same, we expect [delays] because [local governments] are taking [physical] precautions, too. The deadlines are just a mild push so they won’t be lax,” Arceo said.
To fast-track the distribution, some local governments have opted to gather beneficiaries in batches, but this has often resulted in overcrowding of people, mindless of close physical contact to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
“It happened again [on Wednesday] in General Trias [City, Cavite]. We had to stop the distribution and resume [on Thursday],” said Noel Bartolabac, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) regional director.
But the DSWD and the DILG said there were “best practices” by local governments that had smoothly distributed the cash assistance.
Bartolabac earlier warned that “show-cause” orders could be issued to local governments that failed to observe the quarantine protocol, but he realized it was better “to take immediate action right there and then.”
“[Local governments] are improving anyway. There are best practices and lessons learned from the errors [for the distribution of the next tranche],” he said.
CASH ON HAND Health workers and volunteers seek beneficiaries of the government’s cash grants in the village of Rawis in Legazpi City to deliver the subsidy meant to help poor families survive the prolonged lockdown. —MARK ALVIC ESPLANA
Excess funds
In Bicol, the DSWD had distributed P5 billion to 1.1 million beneficiaries as of Thursday morning. Of the 114 local government units in the region, 104 finished the aid distribution.
In Quezon, General Luna Mayor Matt Erwin Florido said the municipal government would return P1.13 million in unused funds after completing the aid distribution in 27 villages.
In Central Luzon, cash grants had reached 1,311,594 of the target 1,515,847 families affected by the Luzon lockdown as of Thursday.
As of Wednesday, 269,630 families in the Cordillera had received cash aid, according to the DSWD regional office. The figure represented 90.7 percent of targeted beneficiaries.
As much as P1.4 trillion was released to the region’s 60,038 poorest families under the government’s conditional cash transfer program and to 209,592 families identified by the local governments.
Sadanga town in Mountain Province returned P1.47 million in excess grant money.
Baguio City distributed cash grants to 37,034 beneficiaries. Mayor Benjamin Magalong has urged residents “who believe that they are qualified [Social Amelioration Program] recipients” to go to their barangay halls and enlist for the financial assistance.
Extension call
In the Visayas, the Iloilo City government has appealed for an extension until May 14 to distribute cash assistance. About P350 million remained to be paid out in the city.
Mayor Jerry Treñas said the distribution to the remaining beneficiaries would be centralized at the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand instead of handing out the money per barangay. “We will make sure that social distancing measures will be observed,” Treñas said.
In Eastern Visayas, more than 439,000 of the 594,094 beneficiaries had received their financial assistance of P5,000 each as of May 7. —REPORTS FROM MARICAR CINCO, DELFIN MALLARI JR., REY ANTHONY OSTRIA, TONETTE OREJAS, ARMAND GALANG, VINCENT CABREZA, NESTOR BURGOS JR. AND JOEY GABIETA INQ