MANILA—Some 77,000 families, constituting 48.1 percent of the 160,000 families in Paranaque City are eligible to receive the P8,000 aid under the government’s social amelioration program through the Department Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) office. This figure is different from the 7,000 4Ps beneficiaries who are already receiving the conditional cash transfer funds through their bank accounts.
The distribution started on Friday, April 3, where more than 700 residents of a barangay in Paranaque already received P8,000 in assistance. Thousands more families are expected to receive their share within the week until all target beneficiaries are reached.
The initial distribution of cash relief in Barangay Vitales, Paranaque City was led by Secretary Carlito Galvez. He and personnel of the DSWD and some city hall officials went house-to-house to 762 households. Galvez said that his group decided to give residents the cash in full instead of cash plus a variety of relief goods as was originally envisaged in the Bayanihan Law for faster distribution. “Mas madali kung ibigay natin ang cash at may options sila kung anong mabibili nila sa pera,” Galvez said.
The DSWD received P100 billion for the first tranche of the amelioration program and the second tranche would be released in May. Beneficiaries of the program are identified and chosen based on a certain criteria and guidelines by their local government units such as the barangays and the DSWD. Priority for the program is given to senior citizens, pregnant mothers, and displaced workers, according to the program guidelines.
Galvez said the program of the DSWD is different from the Covid 19-related assistance package of other agencies of the government like the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and its attached agency, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Agriculture. He explained that beneficiaries who received financial aid from other agencies, they are no longer eligible to receive the aid from DSWD.
