Give cash aid immediately to reduce hunger, anti-poverty exec pleads

CEBU CITY –– An official of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) has appealed for the immediate distribution of the second tranche of cash aid under the government’s social amelioration program (SAP).

Lawyer Noel Felongco, NAPC secretary and lead convenor, said the payouts would help reduce involuntary hunger in the country.

“Hunger has increased due to the lack of distribution of the second tranche (of cash aid),” said Felongco during a virtual presser here on Wednesday.

He said there was an increase of involuntary hunger in the Philippines in May. “This (early distribution of SAP) could have helped greatly,” Felongco said.

“Involuntary hunger” means the hunger experienced by a family due to lack of food to eat. Based on the Social Weather Station survey, about 4.2 million families have experienced involuntary hunger in May.

“This is very alarming,” said Felongco.

The figures, he said, nearly doubled the 2.1 million people, who experienced involuntary hunger in December 2019.

The government, under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, 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 the poor or informal sector, who have no income after the government imposed a lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease.

The distribution was divided into two tranches of P100 billion each.

The first tranche of distribution started on April 3 and was supposed to end on April 30, but was extended twice––on May 7 and May 10.

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

LZB