DSWD approves emergency subsidy for SAP waitlisted families

June 8, 2020 Metro BLISTT

BAGUIO CITY, June 5(PIA) – The Department of Social Welfare and Development has released the special guidelines in the implementation of the Emergency Subsidy Program(ESP) that aims to expand the cash subsidy to the wait listed or left out families during the first tranche of the Social Amelioration Program(SAP) DSWD-CAR Regional Director Leo Quintilla discloses that under Memorandum Circular 14 the national government through DSWD aims to provide financial subsidy to an additional five million COVID – affected families nationwide.

Priority for the ESP are the eligible waitlisted or left out families that were listed in the proposals submitted by local government units(LGUs) to DSWD for their inclusion to the SAP cash subsidy of P5,500 per eligible family For Cordillera, there are around 8,500 waitlisted families in the proposals submitted by the different LGUs units in the region, Quintilla said.

In the special guidelines, LGUs will determine the additional beneficiaries for the program which now may also include low income families; families with members who are considered part of the vulnerable group, and persons previously included in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program who are just recently included in the 4Ps “moved-out” list.

Low income families that have a pensioner member can also qualify for the ESP as long as the pensioner is receiving a monthly pension that is lower than P5, 500, the designated SAP cash assistance for Cordillera, Quintilla explained DSWD hopes to disburse the ESP to the qualified beneficiaries this month.

It is also looking into adapting electronic and digital payment schemes especially for the qualified beneficiaries in urban areas or progressive towns.

For the first tranche of SAP, Quintilla reported that this reached out to 299,734 family beneficiaries in the region with total disbursement of around P1.56 billion.

LGU submission of liquidation reports is already at 97.47 percent or 46 of the 77 LGUs in the region already submitted full report while 31 have partial reports submission.

Social Amelioration Card encoding is already at 94.77 percent. Said data is essential in the crosschecking of beneficiaries of government assistance for the provision of further assistance to COVID-19 affected families including the second tranche of SAP once the directive and guidelines is downloaded to DSWD – CAR, he added.

For the second tranche of SAP, Quintilla said they are still waiting for the directive and guidelines from their central office.

JDP/CCD-PIA CAR