BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved a resolution confirming the memorandum of agreement (MOA) entered into by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong with the Cordillera office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-CAR) for the release and distribution of the Social Amelioration Package (SAP) to qualified households in the city amounting to P263.7 million for a total number of 47,957 families.
The resolution authored by all members of the city legislative body states that the City Social Welfare and Development office (CSWDO) already submitted the project proposal for the SAP assistance to families in need due to the government’s ongoing battle against the dreaded Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) amounting to P263.7 million for a total number of some 47,957 families who come from the city’s barangays.
Joint Circular No. 1, series of 2020 of the DSWD and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) defined the role of each government agency, including the local governments, in the release and distribution of the SAP financial assistance to qualified beneficiaries supposedly screened by the concerned offices of the local governments.
The resolution notes the SAP is a program of the national government that aims to effectively and efficiently address and ease the economic effects of the ongoing implementation of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine being implemented to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus.
Earlier, the DSWD started coordinating with the local government units for the immediate release and distribution of the SAP benefits of the identified recipients pursuant to Joint Memorandum Circular No. 1, series of 2020 of the DSWD and DILG pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 11469 or the Bayanihan To Heal As One Act of 2020.
Based on the data from the CSWDO, there are more than 45,000 beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that have been automatically included in the beneficiaries of the SAP while there are additional individuals who belong to the informal sector who were displaced from work following the closure of most of the establishments as an offshoot of the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine that had been extended up to the end of the month.
However, despite the submission of the available listings of beneficiaries of the government’s poverty alleviation program, concerned government agencies and the city government continue to receive numerous complaints from residents in the city’s 128 barangays questioning their alleged non-inclusion to the list of beneficiaries of the SAP amounting to P5,500 per month for April and May.
The approved resolution will be immediately transmitted to the DSWD-CAR to facilitate the processing and releasing of the check containing the aforesaid mount to help in speeding up the subsequent release of the financial assistance to the identified beneficiaries of the SAP considering the urgency of providing them of the assistance due them from the national government pursuant to the newly enacted law governing the same.
By DEXTER A. SEE