The local government of Pasig City said it would cover the families who were not included in the national government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
Pasig initially requested funds for its 206,000 families from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). DSWD is in charge of implementing the SAP nationwide. The city, however, received funds good for 93,000 families only.
“This is still a big help,” Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto said in a live broadcast on his Facebook page on Sunday. “But we are going to have some problems if only 93,000 families receive aid.”
With that being said, Pasig City will roll out the Pasig Supplemental SAP or the PSSAP.
“All families in need who are not on the DSWD list will be covered by the local government,” Mayor Vico Sotto said. “Over the holidays, we studied the budget and cash position of the city, so we know how much we can distribute.”
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Pasig to cover those not included in Social Amelioration Program
Sotto, however, clarified that the city does not have enough funds to directly match the amount of P16,000 social amelioration per family (for two months) the DSWD is providing for its beneficiaries.
The Mayor said they could give only P8,000 per family at the moment, but this could still change.
The DSWD’s list of beneficiaries is based on the 2015 census, which likely to has changed in the last five years. Sotto said that the original 206,000 families they have proposed to DSWD are also based on the 2015 census, which is likely an undercount.
Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) announced on Sunday that more than PHP335 million were already distributed to grantees of the government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
“Over PHP47 billion [of the fund was] transferred to various local government units (LGUs) and more than PHP335 million are distributed to beneficiaries,” DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao told the media on Sunday.
Dumlao added that as of Saturday, the agency had served 3,721,833 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P’s) beneficiaries with subsidies amounting to PHP16,347,295,950.
Drivers of Transport Network Vehicle Services (TNVS) and public utility vehicles in the National Capital Region, who were affected by the suspension of mass transport amid the enhanced community quarantine, also “received more than PHP323 million”.