MANILA — “I will go after them, maybe not immediately but after the lifting of the ECQ because they have not only stolen from the government but also deprived the people of assistance for them to live,” the infuriated mayor of Navotas said.
Mayor Toby Tiangco disclosed during a radio-TV interview Monday monitored by Sandigan News and Banat Pilipinas News after he discovered a number of anomalies in the list of recipients of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) in the city.
“Nagtaka ako dahil 70,000 ang social amelioration card (SAC) forms ang dinistribute namin ngunit kulang pa rin kahit alam namin na about 60,000 lang ang eligible. Kaya kinuha ko ang listahan at nakita ko na may pangalan na doble at ang iba ay hindi eligible,” Mayor Tiangco said. He even named two suspects of double-entry and vowed to go after them once he would not be busy with the city’s response to the pandemic.
He continued that the Bayanihan Law qualifies only the Barangay Tanods, Barangay Health Workers and Daycare Workers as among the eligible recipients of the SAP that is managed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). The said law allocates some Php 275-billion to the poorest of the poor families in the country who are gravely affected by the Covid-19 scourge. So far, less than half of the said funds have been distributed to the target recipients.
“I discovered at least two major discrepancies. The first is those who are not eligible are included in the list like the case of a Barangay Administrator who received Php 8,000 aid from the SAP. The other one is the non-disclosure of right information about themselves so that they can get more aid than the others,” Mayor Tiangco said.
As of the moment, Navotas is under the ECQ and has a share of the Covid-19 with 31 confirmed cases, nine deaths and 11 recoveries. He advised his constituents who are not feeling well to come out and seek for help. He said that four of the nine reported deaths in the city were those patients who were admitted to the hospital rather late. They already had advance stage of Covid-19 infection.
“Huwag kayong matakot dahil dalawa lang ang mangyari kung maaga kayong magamot. Ang una ay malaki ang tsansa na gumaling kayo, at ang pangalawa ay mas malaki ang tsansa na hindi kayo makakahawa sa iba,” he further said.
He finally urged the other local chief executives to double check the list of their SAP beneficiaries so that money intended for the poor will go to them.
