{"id":9675,"date":"2020-05-19T17:31:31","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T09:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/?p=9675"},"modified":"2020-05-19T17:48:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T09:48:09","slug":"to-give-or-not-to-give-sap-tranche-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/to-give-or-not-to-give-sap-tranche-2\/","title":{"rendered":"To give or not to give SAP tranche 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

How many mothers have been forced to leave their\nlittle ones at home, walk far, and stand in long lines for ayuda<\/em> only to\ngo home empty-handed? How many senior citizens and persons with disability\n(PWD), despite their frailty and limits, still tried to get support but in\nvain? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can government say to people asking: \u201cPaano\nna kami, ano nang kakainin namin sa sunod? Kung ano-ano nang ginagawa sa itlog\n\u2013 nilalaga, sinisigang, inaadobo.<\/em>\u201d, or \u201cItinutulog na lang ng mga anak\nko ang agahan at tanghalian, kasi pang-isang kain na lang ang meron kami.\u201d <\/em>There\nare countless, grimmer accounts of such despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of May 16, exactly two months after Luzon and some parts of the country were put under a lockdown to contain COVID-19, the official count of beneficiaries that have not received the first tranche of social amelioration was still quite a number \u2013 811,193 families or some 4 million people. Even if everyone gets served eventually, the point is that millions of Filipinos were made to wait that long for the much-needed aid to come. Yet the Duterte administration dilly-dallies about distributing the second tranche of the social amelioration program (SAP), as if it is an option to give or not to give. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who are in modified enhanced community\nquarantine (MECQ) areas unarguably need continued support from government. The\nlockdown has caused two months of difficulty in terms of jobs, livelihood and\nincomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the over 13 million families who now fall in\nthe category of general community quarantine (GCQ) also still need continued\nsupport. They were also under lockdown for six to eight weeks and, at best,\nonly got a small amount of support under the first tranche. Moreover, data as\nof the exact second month of the lockdown showed that there were even 659,850\nhouseholds in GCQ areas who have actually not yet received their first tranche.\nThis included 189,467 households in the new GCQ areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There should be no question that the second\ntranche needs to be distributed not just in the remaining MECQ areas but in the\nGCQ areas as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayanihan is explicit about it<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SAP targets 17.7 million beneficiaries. The\nNational Capital Region, Region III except Aurora and Tarlac, Laguna, Mandaue\nCity and Cebu City are under MECQ until the end of the month, covering about 4\nmillion beneficiaries. Erstwhile ECQ areas Benguet, Pangasinan, CALABARZON\nexcept Laguna, Ilo-ilo, Cebu, Davao City and Bacolod City now join the rest of\nthe country under GCQ \u2013 bringing the number of SAP beneficiaries in GCQ areas\nup to 13.7 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The usual economic activities can resume in GCQ areas.\nThere are still minimum health requirements such as physical distancing,\nfrequent handwashing, and bodily protection because the battle against the\ncoronavirus continues. MECQ areas meanwhile maintain restrictions on mobility\noutside the home, as well as on non-essential activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malaca\u00f1ang initially announced that only MECQ\nareas will get the second tranche of social amelioration. Soon after, the\npresident gave orders to not just give it all 18 million families but to\nactually add 5 million more, earning him additional popularity points. Yet is\nthis really something for the president to give or not give according to how\ngenerous he is feeling? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bayanihan<\/em> to Heal as One Law or\nRepublic Act 11469 is actually clear. Section 4 (c) of explicitly states that\nthe government shall \u201cProvide an emergency subsidy to around eighteen (18)\nmillion low income households: Provided, <\/em>That the subsidy shall amount\nto a minimum of Five thousand pesos (P5,000.00) to a maximum of Eight thousand\npesos (P8,000.00) a month for two (2) months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making the people wait<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the onset of the Bayanihan<\/em> law, the\ngovernment promised Php250 billion for social amelioration and health response.\nIt acknowledged the huge task of strengthening the country\u2019s health system to\ncontain the coronavirus and to save lives. It also recognized that the lockdown\nwould result in widespread displacement of jobs and disruption of livelihoods,\nbadly hitting the majority of the country\u2019s low-income households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, there is still no consensus\namong scientists and medical professionals on whether or not the pandemic curve\nis flattening. The number of confirmed cases continues to rise, now exceeding\n12,700, and also deaths at over 830 already. Our health workers and frontliners\nare holding the line as best as they can. But they are also the first to take\nthe brunt amid a private sector-dominated health system that is itself ailing\nfrom a gross lack of equipment, facilities, infrastructure and manpower to  deal with the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government owes the health sector a grand\nboost, in the same way that it owes the people in the GCQ areas the second\ntranche of SAP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To what end<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is the administration\u2019s dilly-dallying part of a\nscript where, to be able to give help to now 23 million SAP beneficiaries, the\ngovernment will now be forced to sell public assets to fund social\namelioration? Who is buying \u2013 China? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time and again, Malaca\u00f1ang has said that it doesn\u2019t have enough funds, and that it\u2019s only thanks to the president\u2019s prudence that the government has found money to spend. Still, resources are limited so the people have to wait. Or even sacrifice \u2013 social welfare secretary Rolando Bautista even once said that not receiving the second tranche is perhaps actually in the spirit of Bayanihan, in freeing up resources for others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet there are funds that can be tapped without\nthe government selling off its assets. IBON estimates a universe of Php3\ntrillion worth of funds that can be explored and tapped. This includes:\nrealigning Build, Build, Build and confidential and intelligence funds;\nrealigning debt service payments by pushing for a debt moratorium,\nrestructuring or even cancellation; and raising new revenues from issuing\nCOVID-19 solidarity bonds and higher income taxes and wealth taxes on the\nsuper-rich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would indeed mean a big shift for the\nDuterte administration whose economic managers already have their minds set on\na recovery program that pushes instead of thwarts those business-biased\nmeasures, for example, big-ticket infrastructure, tied debts, lower corporate\nincome taxes, and tax incentives for investors. But there should be no second\nthoughts either about doing everything necessary to help the people survive the\ncrisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Metro Manila local government units (LGUs)\ndid not make people trapped in the lockdown wait for too long. They defied the\napparent limitations of the bureaucracy by tapping internal funds to distribute\nassistance to their constituents early in the ECQ. They combined technology and\npeople\u2019s volunteerism to deliver help as expediently as they could. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people have been at the center of these LGUs\u2019\nemergency relief operations. This does not seem to be the case with the Duterte\nadministration or even its predecessors. Because, if they were, why is our\nhealth system still at a loss with COVID-19? Why can\u2019t the government drop\neverything to make sure that all vulnerable households get the first and second\ntranche of social amelioration immediately? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are more hapless citizens arrested than are\ntested? Also, why are relief volunteers, community leaders, mobile kitchens,\nand even journalists \u2013 who are merely trying to fill in gaps in emergency\nassistance \u2013 being harassed, arrested, or even killed by law enforcers? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The huge health and economic crisis that the country is facing now can only be hurdled, humanely and effectively, if the people were heeded and not hindered from actively participating.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How many mothers have been forced to leave their little ones at home, walk far, and stand in long lines for ayuda only to go home empty-handed? How many senior citizens and persons with disability (PWD), despite their frailty and limits, still tried to get support but in vain? <\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9677,"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":""},"categories":[2048,2049],"tags":[2199,2218,347,1463,2248,2271,2249,2272],"class_list":["post-9675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banner","category-bird-feed","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-response","tag-duterte-administration","tag-people-economics","tag-sap","tag-sap-2nd-tranche","tag-social-amelioration-program","tag-socioeconomic-response","wpautop"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 18:26:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=9675"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9682,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9675\/revisions\/9682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}