MANILA, Philippines — A total of 91 percent of the social aid for residents of the National Capital Region (NCR) and four adjacent provinces has been distributed already, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in a statement issued on Monday.
According to him, this amounts to P21.06 billion of funds disbursed in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal — the five areas making up the so-called NCR Plus, which were placed under an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) bubble in March due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Año called it a success for local government units (LGUs) to deliver on their promise to distribute the P1,000 per individual before May 15.
Most LGUs have achieved over 90 percent distribution rate, with 37 of them having reached 100 percent completion.
“You know, it’s really a big challenge to distribute aid during a pandemic and it’s pleasing that we saw the commitment of the LGUs,” Año said in Filipino.
“And now billions of pesos of financial assistance have reached our countrymen. The 91 percent, or P21.06 billion, aid distributed to qualified beneficiaries is a victory for the LGUs and the national government,” he added.
According to Año, the still undistributed 9 percent of aid includes the unclaimed benefits that, as he had previously said, will be given to qualified but unlisted beneficiaries.
“Despite diligent efforts by the LGUs, some of the beneficiaries did not claim their ayuda [aid] because they have moved to the provinces or are no longer residing in their LGUs,” he explained.
“Many of them were also delisted because they were found to be duplicates in the Social Amelioration Program list. The LGUs have started to prepare a new payroll in order to distribute these unclaimed funds,” he noted.
The P1,000 aid was given to low-income individuals to help them get through the quarantine stages that were enforced to curb rising COVID-19 cases. The maximum aid that each family can get is P4,000.
As of Monday, Bulacan had the highest disbursement rate at 96.85 percent, which means P2.87 billion has been released to beneficiaries.
Here are other LGUs ranked in terms of disbursement ratings:
- Laguna – 96.50 percent
- Rizal – 93.34 percent
- NCR – 90.99 percent
- Cavite – 86.04 percent
The Philippines, specifically the five areas mentioned, encountered a surge in COVID-19 cases last March.
By May, quarantine restrictions have been eased as active COVID-19 cases steadily dropped due to the high number of recoveries.
Earlier, the Department of Health reported that the nationwide count of active COVID-19 infections was at 54,235.