DSWD to 'adapt' after chaotic first day of student aid distribution
MANILA, Philippines — After crowding and long lines during the payout of cash aid last Saturday, the Department of Social Welfare and Development said it will adjust how it will distribute money for indigent students over the next six weekends.
Speaking on CNN Philippines' "The Source", Social Welfare Secretary Erwin Tulfo said the DSWD is hoping to tap local government units and considering use of an alphabetical list for the payouts.
READ: Filipino students return to in-person classes after 2 years of distance learning
"We will try to adapt. We will send our own people, social workers to the municipalities and the cities," Tulfo said in mixed Filipino and English as he disclosed that the DSWD would soon sign a memorandum of agreement with the Department of the Interior and Local Government for its Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations.
Tulfo admitted there was confusion even in the days before the distribution but said the biggest challenge was from the decision to expand coverage of the AICS program.
Part of the problem was lack of clarity on who would get aid: Tulfo said beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program are actually not included.
"Unfortunately, everyone came the first day...The problem that we saw there was that we opened up this ayuda, this cash assistance, because before, the DSWD was giving it out but only to limited individuals and beneficiaries," he said.
Labor group Partido Manggagawa on Monday said that targeted aid will always be prone to "administrative gridlock if not chaos" as it pushed for more accessible and more long-term social protections.
"When poor people cross the lines because they were ill-informed of proper qualifications and procedures, the problem therefore lies not with their unruly behaviors but primarily with the non-universal and non-permanent system of social protection," PM Chair Renato Magtubo said.
Universal access to aid would reform "the system of patronage today where the sick, the unemployed, the elderly, the children and their parents must assume debts of gratitude from politicians and other government officials," PM also said.
The DSWD said that more than 53,000 students in crisis received help on the first day of the Educational Assistance Payout.
LGUs want better planning in distribution
In a separate interview also on CNN Philippines, Muntinlupa City Mayor Ruffy Biazon said the city is ready to assist in distributing aid but questioned the DSWD's promises that everyone would receive ayuda.
"We have enough venues for cash distribution [but] giving aid to everyone in need can't be promised due to limited funds," he said. "That's where the problem starts: when the impression of the people is that everyone will receive aid."
"That's what the DSWD should be communicating...Aid payout from central office will always be a problem [but] LGUs are always ready to assist in distributing ayuda."
There are 53,000 public school students this year in our city. Definitely, we need to formulate a distribution policy and plan if the DSWD will pass the duty to the LGU. Can it just be first come first served? For sure, thousands will show up. That’s what happened today.
— Ruffy Biazon (@ruffybiazon) August 20, 2022
In a tweet, Mayor Biazon also said that the DSWD should sit down with LGUs first and present a "thorough communication plan" before announcing anything.
Local governments handled the payout of aid from the DSWD over the coronavirus-induced Enhanced Community Quarantines earlier in the pandemic. Beneficiaries of the ayuda at the time were based on lists that needed to be updated first.
In a separate advisory, the Pasig City public information office said that no funds, list of qualified beneficiaries, or even payout guidelines have been cascaded to local government units yet.
Based on DSWD data as of Monday morning, more than P154 million out of P500 million budgeted in assistance has been distributed to students who need immediate help to buy school supplies and other equipment for the first day of classes.
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