The social welfare department has been trying its best to window-dress the slowness and stinginess of government\u2019s Social Amelioration Program (SAP) distribution by diligently updating the public on how much has been distributed to how many households. Somehow it is a relief that it has mobilized finance service providers (FSPs) for swifter distribution. Still there is no guarantee of smooth payout because of various remaining obstacles such as bureaucratic procedures, untransparent validation, recipients\u2019 lack of familiarity with new modes of service, and other technical requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall,\nthe Duterte administration\u2019s SAP in the time of COVID-19 has been\nhit as stingy, snail-paced, chaotic, and marred with controversy and\ncorruption. The promise of providing 18 million poor and low-income\nhouseholds (plus an additional 5 million wait-listed families) with\nemergency aid worth Php5,000 to Php8,000 for two months, has been\nbroken. Distribution has been long delayed \u2013 families have had to\nfend for themselves until the first tranche arrived over a month late\nin May or June. Then the government started giving out the second\ntranche only in July and moving double time only in August. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One\nof the weaknesses of SAP that is not underscored enough is how the\ngovernment has effectively reduced the number of beneficiaries\ndespite its acknowledgement that millions remain without work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second\ntranche recipients reduced<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Through\nthe Department of Social Welfare and Development\u2019s (DSWD) Joint\nMemorandum Circular No. 2 Series of 2020 (JMC No. 2-2020), a memo on\nsecond tranche recipients, government declared that only residents of\nenhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ (MECQ) areas as\nof June are to receive the second wave of aid. The reason was that\nthere were no more resources for everyone to get \u201cayuda\u201d. This\nspells indifference on the part of government because economic\nactivity is still just resuming, and jobs and livelihoods remain\nprecarious in general community quarantine (GCQ) areas. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nJMC No. 2-2020 effectively reduced the original 17.8 million SAP\nbeneficiaries\u2014presumably the \u201c18 million\u201d beneficiaries\nstipulated in the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act \u2013 to only 8.7\nmillion beneficiaries. Then, according to DSWD\u2019s Memorandum\n14-2020, of the 5 million additional low-income families categorized\nas \u2018wait-listed\u2019, only 3.5 million residing in ECQ\/MECQ areas\nwere to get the second tranche. So, after promising emergency relief\nto a total of 22.8 million combined original and wait-listed\nbeneficiaries, only 12.2 million ECQ\/MECQ households get the second\ntranche. This leaves 10.6 million families to stretch one month\u2019s\nworth of aid across several months of lockdown. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nnumber of first and second tranche recipients has been reduced\nfurther, however. As a result of the DSWD\u2019s de-duplication and\nvalidation of beneficiaries, the local government units (LGUs)\nreportedly registered only a total of 3.2 million additional\nlow-income families nationwide. This means a 1.8 million reduction of\nthe much-publicized 5 million wait-listed beneficiaries. Applying\nMemo 14-2020, government now targets to give the second wave of aid\nto only 2.2 million wait-listed beneficiaries who are ECQ\/ MECQ\nresidents. So now there are only 10.9 million families getting the\nsecond tranche, leaving out 11.9 million families.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n How\nis it then that government reported that after de-duplication and\nvalidation, there are now 14.1 million families getting the second\ntranche? A review of the DSWD dashboard and press releases shows that\nthe agency has also included in its \u201cSAP2\u201d or second wave of SAP\nthe now 3.2 million validated wait-listed families nationwide. This\nerroneously bloats the number of second tranche beneficiaries with\nthe number of validated wait-listed beneficiaries who are really just\ngetting aid for the first time. Still\nit will also no longer be a surprise should this number be pared down\nfurther due to the de-duplication and validation process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not\njust numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One\nthing that government has repeatedly reminded the public in its\nmidnight addresses is how there are no more funds. In reducing the\nrecipients of the second tranche, it abandons millions of low-income\nfamilies who fight daily to make ends meet. Skirting hunger is a\nfeat, but when they get sick, these families may not be able to\nafford even a ride to the nearest health facility, whether or not\nthey are afflicted with COVID. And tests are another expense they\ncannot afford. There are reports that some crematoriums are being\noverwhelmed by bodies presumed but not confirmed to have been COVID\ncases. They were either turned away by overwhelmed hospitals or they\nhad no money for a check-up. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nexpired Bayanihan Act earmarked Php200 billion for emergency relief\nto households. As\nof August 15 around\nPhp175.2\nbillion has already been distributed for this purpose. The aid\nprograms through the labor and agriculture departments have also been\nshown to be tokenistic, not covering the total population of workers,\ninformal earners, farmers and farmworkers affected by the lockdowns. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n But\nthose that are no longer targeted by government to receive aid aren\u2019t\njust numbers but actual families being left to wriggle out of the\ncrisis on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nStill\nnot having a comprehensive plan six months into the worst health and\nsocioeconomic crisis this country has faced unmasks the government\u2019s\nlong-running deception of having \u201cmalasakit\u201d for the people and\nmotherland. Now that a stimulus and recovery plan has come about, we\nhave yet to see if it intends to truly save the critically-ill health\nsystem, correct problematic aid for vulnerable families and the\nproduction sector, and build the country\u2019s own long-time capacity\nto face future health and economic crises by boosting agriculture and\nmanufacturing which are the economy\u2019s core. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saying\nthat people just have to live with the virus which is here to stay\nmeans survival of the fittest and comes from a high place oblivious\nof the daily miseries of the many – they couldn\u2019t care less for the\npoor majority of the Filipino people. ###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BIRD FEED<\/p>\n Those that are no longer targeted by government to receive aid aren\u2019t just numbers but actual families being left to wriggle out of the crisis on their own.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":10141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","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":[1,2048,2049],"tags":[2218,347,2249],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10139"}],"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=10139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10142,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10139\/revisions\/10142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}