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MANILA, Philippines – Secretary of Social Welfare Rolando Bautista has called for the shortcomings to be understood in the early days of implementing the government’s two-month social improvement program for low-income families.
Bautista said no system was perfect, but officials were working to address problems in distributing the monthly cash subsidy from P5,000 to P8,000 to 18 million low-income households, which is intended to help them cope. the situation after Luzon was quarantined to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
“As I said, we cannot perfect the distribution or identification of target beneficiaries in a week or two,” Bautista said in an interview about Radyo Pilipinas on Friday night.
Address gaps in the program
He said that the health crisis happened suddenly, so the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was coordinating with local government units (LGU) to study and identify ways to address gaps and deficiencies in the social improvement program .
“This is why I advise all of our target beneficiaries to have a little understanding for the past few days, because no one wanted aid distribution to happen that way,” he said. It also encouraged the public to monitor the distribution of the cash subsidy and inform those who would abuse these funds for the poor.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año promised to suspend local officials involved in irregularities in the distribution of aid, he said.
Some families have complained about the slow distribution of emergency monetary assistance, while Metro Manila mayors lamented that the amounts given for this were based on a 2015 census and were not enough for poor families in their list.
Bautista said local government officials must identify homeless families and street dwellers in their areas and register them in barangays so that they can receive cash assistance.
He said the barangay or the City’s Office of Social Welfare and Development should identify and certify that a family is homeless or belongs to the vulnerable sector.
Help based on LGU list
“We believe that the barangay knows people in their areas and could attest to their status in life,” he said.
These homeless or street people must register at a barangay so they can be given a social improvement card and given priority, he said.
“The basis of the aid we would give is the list that the local government unit will prepare,” he added.
He added that the LGU would also be the ones that would propose the distribution point or the strategy to provide assistance to beneficiaries.
Senators have called on the executive department to accelerate the implementation of the social improvement program and other programs to help vulnerable sectors cope with the effects of quarantine across Luzon.
Senator Pia Cayetano said DSWD should also provide a more detailed update on the implementation of this program, one that provides the number of beneficiaries, the areas covered, and the amount spent.
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