THE government has filed charges against 92 more barangay officials for their alleged involvement in the irregular practices related to the distribution of the first tranche of the cash assistance under the government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the 92 officials are in addition to the 42 other barangay officials earlier charged by the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) before the Prosecutor’s Office of the Department of Justice.
“Hindi ninyo matatakasan ang mga panlolokong ginawa ninyo sa pamimigay ng ayuda (You’re not going to get away with the fraud you committed in the distribution of the aid),” Año said of the 134 barangay officials so far charged.
Año said the CIDG is due to file nine more cases against erring barangay officials in the next few days. Also, he said the CIDG is fast-tracking the case build-up against 86 others.
Most of the barangay executives have been accused of taking cuts from the cash aid that was given to poor families and of splitting or dividing the aid for one beneficiary among two or more beneficiaries.
DILG undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya thanked the DOJ and the Prosecutor General for ordering prosecutors throughout the country to prioritize the preliminary investigation against the barangay officials.
“We are grateful to the DOJ and the Prosecutor General for prioritizing these cases. We need to send a strong message to corrupt barangay officials that their criminal activities will not be tolerated,” he said.
Malaya said some of the erring officials charged were from Boac, Marinduque where a barangay chairman, two kagawads and a Sanguniang Kabataan chairperson charged a P50 processing fee from the beneficiaries.
In Binmaley, Pangasinan, Malaya said a barangay captain and his cohort reportedly collected P1,000 from SAP beneficiaries. In Sta Maria, Ilocos Sur, a barangay chairman took P2,000 of the assistance given to at least 132 beneficiaries.
Malaya said some barangay officials in Sta Maria, Ilocos Sur and in Nasipit, Agusan del Norte acted with deceit and dishonesty, leading to the inclusion of their unqualified relatives in the list of SAP beneficiaries.
Malaya said politics was at play in the distribution of the aid in some barangays in Eastern Samar, where some barangay residents were not given the aid because they were not supporters of the mayor. He said SAP is for the poor.
SECOND TRANCHE
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the second tranche will be given to some 12 million low income families living in the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ (MECQ), and five million poor households who were left out or wait-listed from the first tranche.
Roque expects the distribution of the second tranche of the SAP to be faster since the 12 million families in the ECQ and MECQ areas were already part of the April payout.
Latest data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) showed that government had already completed 98.9 percent of the distribution of SAP for April and has reached 97.6 percent or 17.5 million of the targeted low income and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program beneficiaries. A total of P98.9 billion of the P100 billion allocation for April had already been distributed.
