The Department of the Interior and Local Government ordered police stations Wednesday to deploy cops at Social Amelioration Program (SAP) remittance centers for its second tranche of cash aid distribution.
DILG spokesman Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said Secretary Eduardo Año directed Joint Task Force COVID Shield chief Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar to immediately send police force to ensure health protocols such as physical distancing and use of face masks are imposed in remittance centers.
“Our field offices have monitored long lines in some remittance centers, we advise them to practice social distancing at all times to protect themselves and their families,” Malaya said in a press statement.
Malaya also said DILG directed quarantine rules supervisors to deploy all barangay watchmen at SAP remittance centers to ensure imposition of minimum health standards to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“We are also urging the barangay to assign barangay tanods to remind the public of the minimum health standards together with the PNP,” Malaya said.
The DILG spokesmanalso urged qualified beneficiaries to utilize cashless transactions such as GCash and PayMaya to avoid going out of their homes.
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DILG orders police deployment in SAP remittance centers
“Kung puwedeng hindi na nila i-encash at dumiretso na sila sa mga grocery o botika na tumatanggap ng cashless transaction mas mabuti, mas walang contact. Mas protektado tayo sa virus,” Malaya said.
(If it is possible that they would not encash and they could go straight to grocery stores or pharmacies that accept cashless transactions better, there is no further contact. We are more protected from the virus.)
DILG earlier said the distribution of SAP 2 in Metro Manila would be completed by August 15.
The second tranche of SAP is worth P28.3-billion that would be given to 2,675,610 family beneficiaries.
DWSD earlier explained the reasons why the number of qualified SAP 2 beneficiaries were reduced, which is now 14,117,957 individuals.
The agency said one of the reasons their stringent validation and deduplication process to ensure that only low-income families would receive the government’s financial assistance. They also filtered out those who are already getting aid from other government agencies.
DSWD also discovered around 200,000 beneficiaries that are not qualified for the SAP 2.