It has been over 130 days since the start of COVID-19 lockdowns,\nyet government help for families most affected by the crisis remains\nsnail-paced, measly, and even much less than promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inadequacy of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP)\nunderscores the government\u2019s failure to address the plight of the most\nvulnerable Filipinos in the time of COVID-19. The Duterte administration\u2019s hype\nthat it is close to completing the distribution of the second tranche of SAP\nalso conceals how many Filipinos will not get aid that they still badly need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lockdowns have been extended in many areas because COVID-19\ncontinues to spread so economic activity is resuming unevenly. However, too little\nis being done to protect millions of families from the prolonged joblessness\nand loss of incomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bayanihan<\/em> to Heal as One law promised to give emergency\ncash subsidies to 18 million low-income families from vulnerable sectors whose\njobs and incomes were disrupted by the COVID-19 lockdown. The SAP was supposed\nto give Php5,000-8,000 per month for two months. The number of target\nbeneficiary households was originally identified at 17,741,405 by the\nDepartment of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Its Memorandum 14-2020\nlater added another five million needy families to receive aid \u2013 also called\nwait-listed families \u2013 which brought the total number of SAP beneficiaries to\n22.7 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Broken promise. <\/strong>The burst of generosity was not as\nit seemed. As it turns out, 10.6 million or almost half (47%) of the 22.7\nmillion beneficiaries will only get one of the two promised tranches. The\ngovernment backtracked and eventually said that residents of areas declared\nunder general community quarantine (GCQ) or modified GCQ as of June 15 would\nnot be getting the second wave of aid after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consequently, only 12.1 million or a little over half (53%) of SAP\nbeneficiaries residing in enhanced\/modified enhanced community quarantine\n(ECQ\/MECQ) areas will get both tranches. This includes 8.6 million households\nin Region 3 (except Aurora), National Capital Region (NCR), Calabarzon,\nBenguet, Pangasinan, Ilo-ilo, Cebu province,<\/strong> Bacolod City, Davao City,\nAlbay province, and Zamboanga City. Also, only 3.5 million of the wait-listed\nfamilies are covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government is supposed to have already spent Php374.9 billion\nfor COVID-19 response of which Php200.9 billion went to the DSWD, Php12.5\nbillion to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and Php11 billion to the\nDepartment of Agriculture (DA). Has everyone in need been helped?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overdue. <\/strong>Aid is actually very slow in coming, according to data as of July 22. Although some 17.45 million beneficiaries were able to get their first tranche the majority had to wait at least 6-10 weeks for this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of these, 3.7 million or 31% of the target 12.1 million reportedly\nalso already received their second SAP tranche. Malaca\u00f1ang said that 80% of\nthose supposed to receive a second tranche will get the amount before the end\nof July. This is very late though. Beneficiaries presumably should have gotten\ntheir first tranche around mid-April, or a month into the lockdowns, and the\nsecond tranche correspondingly by mid-May. Receiving the second tranche only\nnow is over two months late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But these late recipients are actually the lucky ones. As of July\n22 or over four months of lockdowns, around 4.18 million still haven\u2019t received\nanything \u2013 288,637 from the initial 17.7 million target beneficiaries, and\nbased on reports, 3.9 million of the five million wait-listed families. This\nsadly includes 62,509 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino<\/em> Program (4Ps)\nbeneficiaries who are among the poorest of the poor in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inadequate. <\/strong>And it is not as if the aid being\ngiven is substantial. The Php98.5 billion distributed to 17.45 million\nhousehold for the first tranche averages to Php5,645 per family. This amounts\nto just Php43 daily per family when spread over the 130 days since the lockdown\nwas imposed. Those receiving a second tranche may double this but, still, Php86\nis a paltry amount to stretch over four months of having no, low, or unstable\nincomes. Expenses for food, rent, utilities and even debt continued or, at\nbest, were only momentarily delayed by the lockdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Too many families will not get the \u201cPhp5,000-8,000\u201d monthly\npromised. This is because the actual cash subsidies disbursed per household\ndepends on the minimum wage of the region where the beneficiary resides, as per\nthe DSWD\u2019s Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2 Series of 2020 (JMC No. 2-2020). The\nmaximum subsidy per family is: Php5,000 in Regions 5, 8, 9, 12, CARAGA and\nARMM; Php5,500 in CAR and Regions 1 and 2; Php6,000 in Regions 6, 7, 10 and 11;\nand Php6,500 in Regions 3 and 4A. The Php8,000 maximum subsidy is only given in\nthe NCR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, those already receiving 4Ps, DOLE and DA assistance will\nhave these equivalent amounts deducted from the maximum regional subsidy. As it\nturns out, the DSWD does not necessarily give the emergency cash subsidy in its\nentirety and in many cases just tops up existing amounts received from other\nprograms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The biggest subsidy is supposedly in NCR. Even assuming that\nhouseholds here all get their second tranche by end July, their cash aid only\namounts to Php118 per family if spread across 136 days (March 16-July 30). This\nmay buy a family of five a kilo of rice and viand for a day but does not leave\nmuch for any other essential needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social welfare advocates say there should even be a third and\nfourth tranche especially because the lockdown extended beyond the two months\nstipulated in the Bayanihan law. Unfortunately, even as the lockdowns were just\nstarting, the Duterte administration already insisted that it was running low\non funds and that not everyone can get \u201cayuda\u201d. Chaotic.<\/strong> The SAP is not just limited and stingy by design \u2013 it has also\nbeen implemented poorly. Distribution of the first tranche was marred with\ncontroversy and reportedly even corruption. This includes authorities dividing\na single pay-out into several parts for different households, beneficiaries\nreceiving very small amounts or receiving the maximum subsidy twice, and\nlow-income households not receiving aid at all while better-off households do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other irregularities include ineligible beneficiaries in GCQ areas\nstill receiving a second tranche, wait-listed beneficiaries already lined up to\nget a second tranche, and confusing monitoring of the second tranche and the\nwait-listed beneficiaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DSWD also explains delays in proceeding with pay-outs as due\nto its \u201cde-duplicating\u201d and certifying all the other non-4Ps names submitted by\nthe local government units (LGUs). This process will cover the original 17.7\nmillion beneficiaries as well as the additional five million wait-listed\nbeneficiaries. It says that 81,000 duplications have so far been discovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All these bureaucratic inefficiencies are delaying completion of\nthe first and second tranche payouts, and government\u2019s lack of will to resolve\nthem is just making the public suffer even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Falling short. <\/strong>The administration boasts of\ngiving SAP to millions of families, but it is silent on how millions affected\nby the pandemic lockdown are still left behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n IBON estimates some 15.9 million formal and informal workers\ndisplaced by the lockdown. Yet DOLE\u2019s COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program\n(CAMP) and Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged\/Displaced Workers\n(TUPAD) beneficiaries numbered only 557,924.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The livelihoods of around 9.7 million farmers and fisherfolk were\nalso disrupted, but only 1.2 million were targeted as beneficiaries of DA\u2019s\nRice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA) and Financial Subsidy to Rice Farmers\n(FSRF) programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 10.6 million families who were in ECQ\/MECQ areas won\u2019t be\ngetting their promised second tranche because this took so long in coming and\nthe aid was not given out before lockdown restrictions were relaxed. They are\nexpected to now fend for themselves even as livelihoods remain unstable and\nmillions are still without jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transform SAP. <\/strong>All these SAP troubles are preventing\nmuch-needed help from reaching all of the poorest Filipinos grappling with the\nCOVID-19 crisis. It is far behind schedule, grossly insufficient, and leaves\nbehind millions who are still reeling from joblessness and falling incomes. Yet\nit is very much possible to give sufficient aid swiftly and efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Philippines can draw lessons from cash transfer systems in\nVietnam and Fiji during disasters. When tropical Cyclone Winston hit Fiji in\n2015, the government gave its unconditional cash voucher assistance (CVA) to\nneedy coastal citizens\u2019 mainly through their mobile phones. The United Nations\nOffice for Disaster Risk Reduction said Fiji \u201cwas able to reduce the impact of\nthe disaster on the poorest by more than 20 percent\u201d. When Typhoon Ketsana struck\nVietnam in 2015, the government, humanitarian organizations and affected\ncommunities worked closely together to ensure timely and transparent delivery\nof financial assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are also positive local practices to build on closer to\nhome. Some NCR LGUs ensured funding to provide financial assistance to all\nhouseholds under their jurisdiction. Better-off families waived their share in\nthe spirit of ensuring that there would be enough for those in need. Other LGUs\nused their pre-COVID database of constituents and channeled cash transfers\nunconditionally to each adult resident through financial service providers\n(FSP). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The SAP difficulties highlight the limitations of the country\u2019s social protection systems, not just during disasters but in the course of daily underdevelopment. A genuinely compassionate government would not just fix the system of SAP to ensure expedient socioeconomic relief alongside boosting public health capacity as the people\u2019s supposed shield against the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A genuinely compassionate government would also fix the Philippine economy to be ready when the next pandemics and crises strike. This means building strong local agricultural and industrial sectors providing stable jobs and incomes and also the facilities and infrastructure for meeting the people\u2019s and the nation\u2019s basic essential and development needs. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY XANDRA BISENIO<\/p>\n It has been over 130 days since the start of COVID-19 lockdowns, yet government help for families most affected by the crisis remains snail-paced, measly, and even much less than promised.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":10047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-withbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,3],"tags":[2300,2332,2218,347,2248,2249,2334],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10045"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10045"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10153,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10045\/revisions\/10153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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