DSWD to use app, GCash to deliver aid

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology have launched a web application to streamline the registration and distribution of emergency cash aid to millions of Filipino households affected by the enhanced community quarantine.

The web app, ReliefAgad, can be accessed at reliefagad.ph.In a virtual launch, DSWD Undersecretary Danilo Pamonag explained the difficulty of encoding manually written data from the beneficiaries’ social amelioration cards (SACs).

With the ReliefAgad app, he said beneficiaries could easily input data by either scanning the bar code of their SAC form or manually encoding their details on the app. They then select how they would like to receive their cash subsidies: in cash, through their local government units, or through e-wallets such as GCash and PayMaya.

“The app will significantly decrease time spent in encoding details from physical forms, and will also lessen time needed for validation,” Pamonag said.

The DSWD will also be using GCash to deliver the second tranche of emergency cash aid to transport network vehicle services and public utility vehicle drivers in the National Capital Region, the agency said on Thursday.

The DSWD, in partnership with the Department of Transportation and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, have tapped GCash for the distribution of the emergency subsidy to eliminate crowding and mass gatherings during cash distribution.

The new system will also “promote transparency and accountability,” the DSWD said.