Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 12) — Lawmakers are still seeking clarity on the distribution of cash aid to poor households – three weeks after they granted President Rodrigo Duterte additional powers to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.
With the Social Welfare Department only having distributed cash aid to 3.7 million beneficiaries out of the target 18 million, lawmakers are calling on the government to fast track the distribution of financial aid.
They also want clearer guidelines on the distribution, which has so far left out some of the intended beneficiaries.
“It does not seem to adopt a clear mapping or economic or geographical profiling of the target 18 million Filipinos. There is also no clear mechanism to guarantee their coverage in at least one of the listed social amelioration program,” Senate Labor Committee chair Joel Villanueva said.
Senate Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development Committee chair Leila de Lima warned that “if the government could not remedy this situation, our country could end up dealing with greater social unrest.”
For Senate Ways and Means Committee chair Pia Cayetano, the government can identify those who have not yet received cash aid and determine funding needed if it provides a more detailed report on the implementation of the subsidy program. She says this can be achieved by providing the number of beneficiaries, areas it has covered and the amount it has spent.
The 18 million target beneficiaries are largely based on the Social Welfare Department’s Listahanan, a registry of households and individuals identified by the national government to be the target of social protection programs.
The Listahanan, however, was last updated last 2015 with 15.1 million households in the list. The Finance Department added three million to this based on the average annual population growth rate, according to Finance Assistant Secretary Tony Lambino.
Lambino said it is now up to the local governments to identify who else would be cash aid beneficiaries, aside from those included in the Listahanan.
Metro Manila mayors, however, have appealed to the Finance and Social Welfare Departments to restore the original number of target cash aid beneficiaries, which they said was slashed by the two departments.
“DSWD must adopt a bottom-up approach and properly consult with the LGUs in identifying the beneficiaries,” Villanueva said.
Among the key provisions of the Bayanihan to Heal as One law, which gave Duterte special powers, is the provision of a ₱5,000 to ₱8,000 monthly allowance for two months to indigent families.
Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One law, Duterte should deliver a weekly report to Congress every Monday, where he would detail what the government has done in the past week with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report should include how much of the funds have been used, how much has been added, reprogrammed, reallocated and realigned for COVID-19 response.
CNN Philippines’ Lois Calderon and AC Nicholls contributed to this report.
