Cayetano, House leaders want DSWD probed on delays in gov’t aid distribution

MANILA, Philippines — Several House leaders—including Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano—have filed a resolution seeking to investigate the “delay” in the provision of the national government’s social amelioration measures by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Under House Resolution No. 973, the lawmakers cited several issues with DSWD’s measures in distributing the government assistance—including the department’s requirement to use Social Amelioration Cards (SAC) as the mechanism for eligible families to access social amelioration programs from any government agency.

“At the outset, it was already complained by various sectors that the SAC form as required by the DSWD was too long, tedious, and intimidating to accomplish, even requiring information that is irrelevant to the distribution of the emergency subsidy, such as monthly income, identification number, health condition, sector, and details of family members,” the lawmakers said.

SACs, according to the lawmakers, also “confused” some local government officials because a memorandum issued by the DSWD stated that the cards were no longer needed for the beneficiaries of the Unconditional Cash Transfer.

This, while DSWD-Regional Directors claimed that the SAC form was required for liquidation purposes, the lawmakers said.

Further, the lawmakers also hit DSWD’s initially prescribed procedure which was deemed to be “lengthy and complicated.” The lawmakers noted that this procedure had 30 steps and five layers of approval, with an estimated completion time of up to three weeks.

“The issuance of four [memorandum circulars] in a span of five days, in addition to the prescription of a 30-step procedure, caused confusion to LGUs and he intended recipients, thereby unnecessarily exacerbating the mental anguish and serious anxiety they have experienced as a result of the pandemic,” the lawmakers said.

“Members of the House of Representatives, in line with their oversight functions, did a time and motion study of the set of guidelines and concluded that the earliest payout resulting from the prescribed procedure of the DSWD will take at least ten to fifteen days,” they added.

Questions on number of recipients

The lawmakers likewise noted the “failure of communication” with the regional directors of DSWD, saying that some LGUs have complained that the regional directors were not open to their suggestions.

“The complaints from LGUs were not limited to the speed of distribution but also to the number of recipients,” the lawmakers said.

“The DSWD arbitrarily and without consultations with the LGUs, based the number of recipients on the 2015 national census, slightly adjusted upwards. Five years have passed and certainly, the population has increased since, and thus the estimate proved inadequate,” they added.

Citing data from the DSWD, the lawmakers said “the allocation for the National Capital Region, Region III, and Region IV-A was grossly inadequate compared to others.”

“Due to the restrictive numbers of recipients proposed by DSWD, many of the LGUs have been in quandary to identify whom to prioritize among their constituents since their expectation is to be able to give aid to 3 out of 4 families, even as some of our citizens expected that everyone will be receiving some sort of assistance from the government,” the lawmakers said.

But even if DSWD revised its procedure, the lawmakers said the new proposed process would still take at least 10 days.

“Contrary to the principles and directives set forth by the President to expedite the distribution of assistance to the public, the aforementioned concerns and issues caused delays which led the DSWD to miss distribution deadlines twice and for the 2nd tranche of distribution intended for the month of May to be deferred,” the lawmakers said.

Aside from Cayetano, other authors of the resolution include Deputy Speakers Luis Raymund Villafuerte, Raneo Abu, Dan Fernandez, Neptali Gonzales II; Cavite 8th District Rep. Abraham Tolentino; Manila 5th District Rep. Cristal Bagatsing; Laguna 2nd District Rep. Ruth Mariano-Hernandez; and Manila 1st District Rep. Manuel Luis Lopez.

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