Over 15 million workers displaced with the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR) and its surrounding provinces have already received their P1,000 worth of aid from the national government, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said of the P22.9-billion budget for the initiative, P15.5 billion has already been distributed to intended beneficiaries.
“So this is around 67 percent of the total [target beneficiaries],” Año said during the public address of President Duterte on Wednesday.
He said among the areas, which have the highest distribution rate are Laguna (76.08 percent) and Metro Manila (73.46 percent).
Those with lowest distribution rates are Cavite (53.24 percent); Bulacan (61.13 percent) and Rizal (67.60 percent).
Año said they received 23,292 complaints regarding the distribution of the assistance, which may be cash or in kind, from its intended beneficiaries.
Of which, only 3,824 have been resolved, while the remaining 15,736 are still under deliberation.
Local government units (LGU) are required by the DILG to answer the complaints.
Concerned LGUs will have until May 15, 2021 to complete the distribution of the said aid.
The government placed NCR and the four provinces, namely, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna, collectively called NCR plus, under a two-week ECQ on March 29, 2021 to help slowdown the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country last month.
President Duterte said in televised remarks on Thursday night that the second-most restrictive lockdown level will now run through May 14 in NCR plus, a region of more than 25 million people. Mayors, however, cut a nine-hour night curfew in metropolitan Manila to six hours to help battered businesses.
Duterte is warning mayors and village chiefs that they face jail if they don’t prevent gatherings and other events that violate the pandemic restrictions.
Confirmed coronavirus infections in the Philippines soared past 1 million Monday, with deaths now at more than 17,000, the second highest in Southeast Asia. Samuel P. Medenilla and AP
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