Davao City: As of 12:00 noon of April 20, 2020 a total of 50, 075 beneficiaries had been given their financial assistance through the Social Amelioration Program with an amount of P300, 450,000 distributed in five provinces in Davao Region including Davao City, the Department of Social Welfare and Development XI reported.
During the One Davao COVID19 Virtual Presser held last Monday (April 20), DSWD XI Regional Director Grace Subong said that amount was given to non-Pantawid beneficiaries composed mostly of families from the informal sector with low income.
Meanwhile, the said department also distributed SAP automatically to its Pantawid sa Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiares thru their cash cards. A total of 246, 374 4Ps beneficiaries with cash cards have already received the cash grant since last week.
About 3,308 4Ps beneficiaries have no cash cards but received the grant which started last week and done today and tomorrow in Davao City (April 22 and 23). Out of the 514 4Ps with no cash card, a number of 415 have been paid, and the balance of 112 are due to receive their pay out on April 22 and 23.
The DSWD XI official said of the 48 municipalities in the region, only one municipality has no fund-download yet, citing Talaingod, Davao del Norte, due to the absence of memorandum of agreement.
“Because of that, we could hardly download its funds, but we have obligated it. We are asking the help of the Department of Interior and Local Government to speed up the transfer of funds. The moment the funds are downloaded to the LGU, the payroll and cash follow,” Subong said.
As cited in the memorandum of agreement between the DSWD and the LGU, the latter is given seven days upon receipt of the funds to give them to the valid beneficiaries, while LGUs with geographically isolated and depressed areas, are given 10 days to give out the funds to the recipients.
Subong admitted that when the Department of Interior and Local Government instructed the LGUs to come up with the list of qualified beneficiaries, some LGUs did not immediately submit the list.
Nevertheless, she said that the DSWD did not wait for the list as the basis for downloading the funds. The DSWD, instead, downloaded the funds earlier, because it only requires the project proposal where required data includes the number of identified beneficiaries based on the issued qualifications, the equivalent amount, and the memorandum of agreement.
Subong said that in Davao City, a list was submitted to and was validated by the DSWD XI, and made the pay-out accordingly.
She said the DSWD has assigned disbursing officers who lead in paying out various barangays in Davao City.
“These are the processes we follow to ensure that the qualified beneficiaries receive the financial assistance of the government,” Subong said.
The DSWD received common complaints such as the number of beneficiaries enlisted by the barangay exceeded the target number provided for by the DSWD,
“There are LGUs up to now which cannot give the precise amount based on the real number of beneficiaries. We cannot ascertain if there is an excess because many LGUs haven’t submitted their lists yet,” Subong explained.
The DSWD called on LGUs to immediately submit the list of beneficiaries not included in its first list inorder for the DSWD to validate and submit it to Central for appropriate allocation of funds.
The DSWD cannot give an assurance that all in the list of beneficiaries will be given assistance.
However, Subong said the national government through the Department of Finance finds means of allocating funds for this purpose.
She said the DSWD has been appealing to the LGUs to immediately distribute the SAP to the beneficiaries so that they can also submit the data, because the national office has no basis in the absence of figures. Subong said the figures will be used in the analysis to ascertain additional number of households that need to be given assistance by the government. (PIA XI/FGM)