57 face raps over cash aid mess in Visayas

AIDING THE POOR A resident of Barangay Rawis in Legazpi City, Albay, checks the cash assistance he received from the government as the country deals with the coronavirus pandemic. In provinces in Central Visayas, some barangay officials are facing charges for suspected irregularities in the distribution of the emergency subsidy. —MARK ALVIC ESPLANA

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — At least 57 people, including 12 village chiefs, in Central Visayas are facing charges for alleged anomalies in the distribution of the first tranche of cash aid under the government’s social amelioration program, a police official in the region said.

“We received numerous complaints against these people. Mostly, the accusations had something to do with favoritism. Accordingly, there were relatives of these officials and unqualified recipients who received the cash aid,” said Maj. Ronald Allan Tolosa, deputy chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Central Visayas.

Among those charged by the CIDG on Monday and Tuesday were four village chiefs in Cebu province, three in Cebu City, two in Lapu-Lapu City, one in Mandaue City, one in Bohol province and one in Negros Oriental province.

Also charged were four barangay councilors, a barangay secretary, seven barangay health workers, three social workers, five coordinators and five enumerators or those tasked to distribute subsidy forms.

Tolosa, however, declined to name the respondents.

Graft cases

Charges for violations of provisions of Republic Act No. 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) and Republic Act No. 11469 (Bayanihan to Heal as One Act) were filed in prosecutors’ offices in the region.At least 20 people were also charged with perjury after receiving the cash aid although they were unqualified. “These people received the cash aid maybe because of favoritism,” Tolosa said.

The CIDG, he said, would file cases against 19 more people in the coming days and would hasten the case buildup against 11 others.

The government, under RA 11469, has set aside P200 billion in emergency subsidy ranging from P5,000 to P8,000, depending on prevailing regional minimum wage rates, to be given to about 18 million low-income families for two months.

Its target beneficiaries are families that belong to either the poor or informal sector who had no means of income after the government imposed a lockdown to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the acute respiratory disease COVID-19.The distribution was divided into two tranches to be allocated with P100 billion each. The first tranche of distribution started on April 3 and was supposed to end on April 30, but was extended twice—to May 7 and May 10.

On May 27, the Department of Social Welfare and Development said only 12 million households from the original 18 million beneficiaries will receive cash assistance in the second tranche of distribution.

—Witha  report from Inquirer Research