Baguio City– The City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) disclosed that some 42, 719 households in the city qualified as recipients of the second round of financial assistance from the government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
City Social Welfare and Development Officer Betty Fangasan said that some 4,568 households from the original recipients of 47,287 households in the first wave of the SAP were reportedly unable to qualify to receive the second wave because of various reasons that were uncovered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) during the cross matching of the agency’s data with other government entities providing similar aid to people impacted by the prevailing crisis situation.
She added that the financial assistance for the qualified recipients of the second wave of the SAP was released through an accredited remittance company to prevent the possibility of close contact among the personnel distributing the financial assistance and the recipients.
However, she stated that there are some 9,061 households in the different barangays whose financial assistance were distributed through the aid of barangay officials because of alleged difficulty in entering their details to the system of the remittance company.
Fangasan said that for those who were unable to get their financial assistance through the remittance company and the ongoing distribution in the barangays, the beneficiaries will have until October 31, 2020 to get their benefits pursuant to the guidelines issued by the DSWD for the second wave of the SAP.
Earlier, the DSWD identified some 45,000 households from the different barangays in the city as qualified beneficiaries of the first wave of the SAP but the same was later increased to some 47,287 households upon the request of Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong because of numerous inquiries from residents on their non-inclusion to the list of beneficiaries.
Fangasan explained that the qualified beneficiaries for the second wave of the SAP were notified by the remittance company commissioned by the DSWD on the schedule for them to claim their financial assistance so that their branches will not be overwhelmed with the influx of recipients wanting to claim their benefits.
(Dexter A. See/ Photo by OIC Joe Manzano, RPN DZBS Baguio)