Labor groups slammed President Duterte on Tuesday for allegedly engaging in partisan politics in the cash aid distribution in Metro Manila.
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) called out Duterte for supposedly singling out a “political rival” in the financial assistance distribution of the national government.
“Duterte, you forgot that cash aid is a right of the people. It should not be used for politics,” KMU Secretary-General Jerome Adonis said in a news statement.
Defend Jobs Philippines (DJP) also issued a similar demand for the cash aid distribution to be “spared” from politics.
Both KMU and DJP issued the statement after Duterte announced last Monday that he would be asking the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) take over the distribution of cash aid in the city in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Duterte said the concerned head of the city was purportedly disorganized in the distribution of previous government aid.
“You have seen it. It’s on TV and all that. This mayor has no idea [on organizing the distribution] so we remove [the] responsibility to distribute cash aid from the government,” Duterte said.
The President did not name the said local official, but in previous weeks Duterte has been critical of Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko” Moreno for supposedly mounting a vaccination drive, which left beneficiaries exposed to the rain.
Moreno, who recently topped surveys for potential presidential candidates, said he would be running in the 2022 national and local elections.
Meanwhile, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) endorsed Duterte’s former aide and now Senator Christopher “Bong” Go as its presidential bet in the polls next year.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the local official affected by the latest order of Duterte will be known by Wednesday when the simultaneous distribution of the cash assistance in NCR will commence.
ECQ aid ‘for all’ in Taguig City
The Taguig City government, meanwhile, announced it will release Covid-19 aid to all its barangays to serve as assistance during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Each barangay is bound to receive P250,000, which they can use to purchase additional food packs for their constituents. This is on top of the regular City Aid being released by the LGU to its barangays.
A news statement said the barangay assistance is apart from the almost 300,000 relief packs being distributed by the City to its citizens. The food packs contain rice, canned goods, coffee, energy drinks and instant noodles. As of August 8, around 210,000 families have already received their food packs.
“We have allotted for all Taguig families, regardless of economic standing to receive food packs from the local government,” Mayor Lino Cayetano said.
The city aid and food packs are apart from the cash assistance provided by the national government, for which the city has already made preparations for immediate disbursement.
Mayor Lino also noted that the city will focus on ramping up vaccination and enhancing the city’s testing, contact tracing and hospital capacity to control the transmission of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Image courtesy of AP/Bullit Marquez