MANILA, Philippines — Dozens of people seeking financial aid gathered at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)’s National Capital Region (NCR) office in Quiapo, Manila before dawn yesterday.
Among those who waited in front of the DSWD-NCR office were senior citizens, solo parents and students.
Police were deployed to pacify the increasingly restive crowd, who reportedly went to the office to receive P10,000 worth of financial assistance from the agency’s Sustainable Livelihood Program.
Some of those who went to the DSWD-NCR office yesterday had been there on Thursday but were sent away by DSWD-NCR personnel because they had not received any application forms for the program, according to earlier reports.
Others showed purported proof their applications have been accepted.
However, the DSWD insisted there was no scheduled application or payout for its Sustainable Livelihood Program.
A vehicle had brought some of the people – who were told there was a scheduled payout – to the DSWD-NCR office, according to DSWD officer-in-charge Edu Punay.
DSWD spokesman Rommel Lopez said the agency would investigate where the misleading claim could have originated.
The DSWD-NCR, headed by Pinky Romualdez, “is currently investigating on how the alleged announcements of distribution of assistance proliferated and how it has unfortunately misled the public,” Lopez told The STAR.
He said DSWD-NCR personnel took note of the applicants’ information and will schedule them properly for assessment.