DSWD counting on financial tech to finish cash aid delivery

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is banking on financial technologies to finish the distribution of cash aid to poor families on or before April 30.

Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Bautista on Tuesday said the DSWD had partnered with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to allow beneficiaries to receive aid through third-party payout systems.

Developing app

“We are coordinating with third-party platforms to transfer funds in a safe and efficient manner,” Bautista said in a televised press briefing.

In Makati, the city government has tapped GCash to disburse financial assistance to 8,000 drivers affected by the lockdown.

Bautista also said the DSWD, in cooperation with the DICT, was developing an application to allow beneficiaries to register and receive payouts faster.

The cash grant, which ranges from P5,000 to P8,000 per family per month, will be given for two months, April and May.

Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, the government has set aside P200 billion to provide cash aid to 18 million poor and low-income families most affected by the community quarantine.

As of April 28, a total of 8.2 million poor households, less than half of the target beneficiaries, had benefited from the government’s emergency subsidy program, known as Social Amelioration Program (SAP), according to Bautista.

Of the P100 billion in emergency subsidy for this month, which represents the first installment of the SAP, only P45 billion had been distributed to families.

Two days before the end of the month, more than 10 million eligible families have yet to receive emergency assistance.

Complain to media

Families who have not yet received their share of social amelioration funds should complain to their local officials or even the media, President Duterte said on Monday night.

This way, the government will learn those who are being left behind in the distribution of the cash aid for families badly affected by the novel coronavirus crisis, he said.

“Those who haven’t received anything, let us know, complain to radio stations or to your barangay captains and mayors… It’s just a matter of using a cell phone to report,” Mr. Duterte said.

The high rate of coronavirus infections in these areas is preventing government employees and social workers from getting to the poor families, said Bautista, a retired army general.

At the briefing on Tuesday, he gave other reasons, such as the remoteness of certain areas, lack of local government manpower and security concerns, particularly the threats posed by the communist New People’s Army, which he said had disrupted several planned distributions.

In the President’s fifth weekly report to Congress on the government’s COVID-19 response, data as of April 24 showed that 6.26 million households, a third of the target families, had received the cash aid, which at the time totaled P 31.1 billion.

The DSWD has disbursed P96.8 billion for beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, non-4Ps beneficiaries, and drivers of transport network vehicle services (TNVS) and public utility vehicles (PUVs).

It said 1,490 local governments had received the P79.9 billion in cash aid to be distributed to poor families who are not 4Ps beneficiaries.

The DSWD had also distributed P323.34 million to 40,418 out of 90,000 drivers of PUV and motorcycle taxi drivers who lost their source of income during the lockdown.

The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) has doled out P1.724 billion of the P1.746-billion allocation for its onetime P5,000 cash aid for affected formal sector workers.

Labor cash aid

A total of 344,805 of the 349,354 intended beneficiaries received the cash assistance. This was apart from Dole’s cash aid for displaced overseas Filipino workers, of which P205 million of P1.5 billion had been given to 20,500 OFWs. There are 135,720 target recipients.

As to the labor department’s cash assistance for displaced informal workers, it has released P575.2 million of the P966.5-million budget, benefiting 220,320 of the 235,949 target beneficiaries.

The Department of Agriculture has so far distributed P645 million of the P3 billion in financial subsidy for rice farmers. INQ