Cash aid extended to 5 million more families

MANILA, Philippines — About five million more families will benefit from the government’s social amelioration program (SAP) aimed at augmenting the income of the country’s impoverished families affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said yesterday.

On orders of President Duterte, Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases authorized the release of the SAP to more families, in addition to the first batch of 18 million families identified through the 2015 census.

“It will be 18 million plus five million beneficiaries for the first tranche of SAP. Perhaps, this is a way to ask understanding from all those who were unable to get their amelioration due to the delay in the release of the first tranche,” Roque said, adding the move was in compliance with the President’s order that nobody will be left behind during the crisis.

The first tranche covered the month of April. Roque said the President is ready to approve the release of funds for the second tranche for this month.

This developed as families who belong to the middle-income bracket are asking why they cannot get the same direct cash benefits from the government. While there are efforts to compensate those whose companies have stopped operations under the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)’s  COVID-19 Adjustment Measure Program, many families still feel the economic crunch.

In an interview on the Cabinet Report program hosted by Communications Sec. Martin Andanar last Friday evening, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the DOLE has provided a one-time cash assistance of P5,000 each to a total of 522,855 workers, worth about P1 billion.

For the informal sector, DOLE has disbursed P993 million for 313,700 informal workers. There are still 59,000 workers who are set to receive their financial assistance, with the total amount pegged at P153 million.

For overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), Bello said the government has set aside P1.5 billion  aimed at providing assistance to 150,000 OFWs who will be displaced because of the pandemic.