MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Wednesday advised the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) “to act like a Santa Claus on overdrive” and disburse its P83 billion unspent funds to victims of recent typhoons.
Recto pressed the distribution of DSWD’s remaining funds from its 2020 budget as plenary debates on Tuesday revealed that the agency’s unexpended allocations include those from the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act and the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act.
“Midnight of December 31 is the Cinderella hour for these funds,” the senator said. “If they have not been obligated, their validity automatically expires on January 1.”
To ensure the funds can still be spent next year, Recto filed a bill that extends the validity of the Bayanihan 2 Law.
Still, the senator clarified that if the said bill will be passed as a law, only a small amount of the untouched DSWD funds will be distributed for the second tranche of the Special Amelioration Program (SAP).
“That’s the tip. The iceberg is some P75 billion. That money, we’ve been told, is now with the DSWD. If it has been obligated, the next step is to disburse it with urgency,” said Recto.
“Yung P6 billion may appear as small in this era of trillion peso budgets, pero pwede mo nang ibili ng 6 million bags of rice na ang tig-25 kilos,” he added.
(That P6 billion may appear as small in this era of trillion peso budgets, but you can spend it to buy 6 million bags of rice that is worth 25 pesos per kilo.)
Under the Bayanihan 1 Law, about P100.144 billion was released among 18 million families for the first tranche of SAP.
The second tranche is supposed to release P94.5 billion funds for 6 million families but only 14.01 million families benefitted from it.
“Yung sa Bayanihan 2 ang may problema, kasi out of the target 662,470 families, mga 1,339 families pa lang ang nakatanggap,” Recto said.
(There’s a problem with the Bayanihan 2 because out of the target 662,470 families, so far only 1,339 families have received the cash aid.)