DBM: 10.9 million Metro Manila folk to get dole

NEW CASH AID Quezon City residents queue to receive cash aid from the government in this file photo. —INQUIRER PHOTO

Nearly 11 million Metro Manila residents will receive cash aid from their local governments after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released P10.89 billion from funds the government failed to spend last year.

“Affected low-income individuals and families are expected to receive P1,000 per person and a maximum of P4,000 per household, to ensure that food and other nonfood requirements are met despite the imposed lockdown,” the DBM said in a statement on Friday.

“The cash aid shall benefit 10.9 million individuals or the bottom 80 percent of the population in Metro Manila, based on the population projection and available data of the Philippine Statistics Authority,” the statement read.

The governments of Metro Manila’s 16 cities and one municipality will distribute the dole under the supervision of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Quezon City will receive the biggest allocation of P2.37 billion, followed by Manila (P1.49 billion) and Caloocan City (P1.34 billion).

A pittance

Las Piñas City will get P488.02 million; Makati City, P511.98 million; Malabon City, P307 million; Mandaluyong City, P347.65 million; Marikina City, P365.75 million; Muntinlupa City, P441.61 million; Navotas City, P197.71 million; Parañaque City, P556.15 million; Pasay City, P356.73 million; Pasig City, P650.89 million; Pateros, P52.42 million; San Juan, P101.79 million; Taguig City, P723.97 million; and Valenzuela City, P589.31 million.

Jonathan Malaya, undersecretary of the DILG, said local chief executives should be given some time to prepare for the distribution of the dole as the funds were only released on Friday.

But leftist members of the House of Representatives mocked the new dole as a pittance and challenged officials to try and survive on only P1,000 during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) that started on Friday and will last until Aug. 20.

“They should try to live on only P1,000 or P4,000 for their family for the next two weeks, so that they will experience the suffering of Filipinos who are on ‘no work, no pay’ status,” said House deputy minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate.

Good for 3 days only

Zarate said that during the ECQ imposed last March and April, the government was so inept that poor families did not get the dole until the last day of the lockdown.

“Is this a repeat of that? Malacañang should fast-track the aid to families because lives are at stake here. There should be an overwhelming sense of urgency to act. It seems that those at the Palace are sleeping on the job,” he said.

The P1,000 per person, Zarate said, might last up to three days while P4,000 might not last five days even if families scrimped to make ends meet.

“What [will] workers do, if they do not go out and their workplaces are closed? This is the dire and desperate situation that we hope that the Duterte administration would realize,” he said.