Pacquiao releases ‘prelude to full, detailed’ exposé’ on alleged SAP anomaly

Senator Manny Pacquiao. Contributed photo

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Manny Pacquiao has released a teaser video on the alleged anomaly in the distribution of “ayuda,” saying this is a “prelude [to] his full and detailed exposé” on the matter.

“On August 21, I will be fighting The Truth Errol Spence but in September, I will reveal the truth about the systematic corruption in the allocation and distribution of the SAP (social amelioration program) fund…I will expose this win or lose in my fight against Errol,” Pacquiao said in a statement Thursday.

Pacquiao’s eight-minute video entitled “Ang Hiwaga sa Ayuda” reiterated his earlier allegations of irregularities in the transaction between the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and e-wallet application Starpay.

The senator, who is currently in the United States to train for his August boxing match, first made the claims in a press briefing he held before leaving the country last July 3.

The video, which was released on Wednesday, raised the question on why Starpay, a “lesser known” e-wallet service, was tapped by the DSWD to handle P52 billion of the P80 billion allocated for the second trance of the SAP aid.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4127490713971097&extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C

Starpay was among the six financial service providers (FSPs) which the DSWD signed an agreement with to digitize the payment of the SAP cash subsidies.

All have been identified as “compliant” to undertake digital electronic disbursement of cash aid through e-wallet accounts and online bank accounts.

The senator’s statement described the teaser video as “a narration of how the DSWD has given special treatment to Starpay despite its obvious lack of experience and capability to handle billions” of funds for the SAP aid.

Pacquiao’s video questioned why the Starpay app, which he said was supposed to be used to distribute cash aids for approximately 6 to 7 million beneficiaries, was only downloaded by 800,000 users.

In his July briefing as well as in a Senate resolution he filed seeking a probe into his allegations, the senator cited a lower figure.

Pacquiao said that of the 1.8 million SAP beneficiaries set to access the aid through Starpay, only 500,000 were able to download the app, which was a requirement to recipients so they would be able to receive and withdraw the cash aid.

This means around 1.3 million projected beneficiaries did not receive the payouts through Starpay since they were unable to download the app, according to the senator.

Starpay has already refuted the “baseless claims” thrown against them.

Starpay said it began dealing with DSWD in June 2020, and was initially awarded coverage of about 1.6 million beneficiaries, but it went “above and beyond” the original allocation set by the DSWD and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The DSWD, for its part, had said it was willing to face any investigation on the disbursement of subsidies under the SAP.

JPV