Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) — Quezon City residents relying on cash aid from the government will have to wait at least two more weeks before receiving the money.
City administrator Mike Alimurung said they are still working on the Social Amelioration Cards.
These will be used to validate qualified beneficiaries of the cash grant to help poor families cope with the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.
“We will distribute forms starting later this week. That will take a week or so then data needs to be encoded and validated. So earliest is two weeks from now,” Alimurung told CNN Philippines in a text message.
More families need aid
The Department of Social Welfare and Development is leading the distribution of the cash aid.
Alimurung expressed concern over the number of families that are set to receive cash aid. He said the number approved by the DSWD is lower than the actual count.
“Approved by the DSWD so far is 377,000 families. But estimates are that there are 700+ thousand qualified families since even stranded, non-residents are to be given,” he explained.
Other local government units are having the same same issue. They are asking for full coverage in their areas, based on earlier pronouncements by President Rodrigo Duterte and House Speaker Alan Cayetano that every household will receive cash grant.
“We humbly request that our municipality be allocated 10,050 Target Beneficiaries as this constitute 100% of our families,” Mayor Fredderick Vida of Mendez-Nuñez, Cavite said in a letter addressed to the President.
He said only some 4,000 families were approved to receive cash aid in his municipality.
Magallanes, Cavite Mayor Jasmin Maligaya-Bautista sent a similar letter.
She said “The allocated fund is for 2,0275 households only when there are 5,394 households in the municipality.”
Schedule of distribution
The DSWD said 16 out of 17 LGUs in Metro Manila have complied with requirements as of Tuesday.
But as to the schedule of the actual distribution, there is no single answer.
It depends on the movement of the LGU.
“We are waiting for the scheduled from LGUs as regards actual implementation. We’re also harmonizing all issues and concerns and will update ASAP,” Director Vic Torres of the DSWD in the National Capital Region said.
The national government said some 18 million poor families will receive the cash aid, worth ₱5,000 to ₱8,000, over a period of two months.
