Hopeful P8K aid beneficiary in Caloocan City ends up with nothing after 14-hour wait

HOPING AGAINST HOPE Residents of Barangay Bagong Silang in Caloocan City brace themselves for a long wait in the sweltering heat, hoping to be among the lucky beneficiaries of aid from the national government. —PHOTO COURTESY OF NATHANIEL GASPAR FETIZANAN

For nearly 14 hours on Wednesday, Inday (not her real name) lined up on the streets of Barangay Bagong SIlang in Caloocan City with hundreds others in the hopes of receiving the P8,000 cash assistance promised by the national government.

The resident of the city’s biggest and most densely populated barangay with nearly 250,000 people said that she and her neighbors had been waiting for two weeks for any text or call from their barangay chair on who among them were included in the list of beneficiaries.

Inday said she was going to use the money to buy food for her family, milk for her 8-month-old grandson and a school uniform for her daughter, a child with special needs.

With social distancing ignored by the expectant crowd, she observed that it seemed as if they had all gone out in search of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) since they were all at risk of being infected.

But around 4:30 p.m., the residents were told to go home, leaving Inday and her husband, a 51-year-old tricycle driver, deeply disappointed.

“The barangay chair was a no-show,” she told the Inquirer. “I wish he was here to witness the situation of those who voted for him.”

At press time, barangay chair Joel Bacolod had yet to respond to the Inquirer’s request for comment.

“We only lined up for more than 14 hours because we had hoped that we would be given aid. We did not know that this would be our experience,” Inday said.

“What if our name is not included in the list? What will happen to us? It’s depressing.”

Mayor Oscar Malapitan earlier said that the city was the first in Metro Manila to distribute the first tranche of the P8,000 subsidy to more than 50 percent of its over 200,000 beneficiaries last month.

As of May 3, a total of 143,307 of the 215,825 beneficiaries, or 66.4 percent, have received the cash assistance.

The Caloocan Public Information Office also promised that officials would be able to distribute the cash aid to all beneficiaries in its 188 barangays by next week.

But hundreds of residents have posted their concerns on Concerned Citizens Group – Barangay 176 Bagong Silang, a Facebook page dedicated to grievances about the government’s Social Amelioration Program.

Some complained that barangay officials had refused to post the names of qualified beneficiaries and instead allowed them to line up in the streets, standing shoulder to shoulder.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure anymore,” Inday said when asked whether she was hoping for any help from the local government in the coming weeks.

Although her family has received relief goods from City Hall, she admitted that these were good only for a few days.

The cash assistance was now their family’s only hope of getting by as the national government prepared the nation to transition into the “new normal” should the lockdown be downgraded to a general community quarantine.

“My husband is a tricycle driver who only earns a small amount every day. If he’s caught with a traffic violation, wala, patay ang buhay,” Inday said.

“I am angry because the subsidy is not just for me. I am angry on behalf of my entire community. Our only wish is for this pandemic to end and everything to go back to normal,” she added.