Beneficiaries of government cash assistance for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis in this city are expected to receive a total of ₱1.3 billion in Social Amelioration Program (SAP) grant.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said on Thursday he is optimistic that such infusion of public funds will pump-prime the local economy.
“This is a tremendous help to our people at a time when our economy is feeling the effects of this health crisis. This will go a long, long way in helping needy families,” he said.
In Western Visayas, where Bacolod City is located, each recipient gets to receive ₱6,000 for two months or a total of ₱12,000.
Under the Emergency Subsidy Program (ESP), provided under the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act, qualified beneficiaries from low-income households are given the cash aid being downloaded by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
On Thursday, the DSWD, through the city’s Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD), started paying the second tranche of the SAP grant to recipients here.
Figures released by the city government showed that the first tranche amounting to ₱588.9 million was distributed to 98,143 residents.
The second tranche of ₱583.6 billion will benefit 97,266 city residents.
Some ₱188.5 million will go to the 15,713 recipients who were listed as “left out” or those who did not avail of the first tranche. Each of them will receive ₱12,000, which is equivalent to two months.
Leonardia said that with more than 113,000 family-beneficiaries in the city, majority of its more than half a million residents will benefit from the government’s subsidy program.
Bacolod is one of the few cities granted the second tranche among the 146 cities nationwide.
This was after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases approved the city’s request for an extension of the enhanced community quarantine status for 15 days from April 30 to May 15, 2020.
Leonardia, national president of the League of Cities of the Philippines and a member of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council, thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for the approval of the second tranche release for Bacolod. (Nanette Guadalquiver NDB via PNA, photo by PNA)