PRESIDENTIAL spokesman Harry Roque on Monday said some 16.9 million poor households living in areas under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified quarantine (MECQ) will get the second tranche of the emergency cash subsidy under the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
Roque said the second tranche will be given to 4.9 million families who did not get the April cash aid and the 12 million poor families living in the provinces and cities covered by the ECQ and MECQ.
The cities of Cebu and Mandaue, both located in the province of Cebu, under ECQ from May 16 to 31; while Metro Manila and the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Zambales, Laguna and the city of Angeles are under MECQ for the same period.
Roque said that side from the P5,000 to P8,000 SAP subsidy, the government will also release in May a P5,000 to P8,000 cash aid to some 3.4 million middle income workers for the second tranche of the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) program. The Department of Finance (DOF) has said that 2.1 million middle income workers got the 1st tranche of the SBWS aid.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is still waiting for an issuance from the Office of the President that will contain the guidelines for the May payout.
SUBSIDIES FOR APRIL
Roque said the DSWD had released SAP funds for 18,046,093 low income families nationwide.
In an update, however, the DSWD said local government units (LGUs) around the country distributed the April cash aid to 17.05 million poor families totaling P96.4 billion. Of the amount, P17.477 billion was distributed to 4.021 million Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino (4Ps) families, while P78.933 billion was given to 13.03 million low-income non-4Ps families, as of May 16.
DSWD spokeswoman Director Irene Dumlao said 1,215 LGUs had already completed the distribution of the SAP while 217 of the local government executives had already submitted their liquidation reports.
Roque sad apart from the SAP payout in April, the other government agencies had also distributed cash aid for 415,000 farmers through the Department of Agriculture’s Financial Subsidy for Rice Farmers (FSRF); 602,722 formal sector workers through the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE’s) COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP); 73,352 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) through DOLE’s Abot-Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP); and 299,156 informal sector workers through DOLE’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa Ating Disadvantaged/ Displaced Workers (TUPAD).
