"Some officials owe us answers."
"Some officials owe us answers."
With the means of livelihood of almost every Filipino family virtually grinding to a halt at the declaration of an enhanced community quarantine, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the release of P200 billion to be distributed among 18 million families.
With the current population standing at around 110 million, it is estimated there are roughly 21 million families all over the country. Thus, it widely believed the 18 million beneficiaries of the social amelioration program would cover even the middle-income families, most of whom were affected by their employers’ no work, no pay scheme
However, the SAP, just like any other relief operations handled by the government, was suspected to be tainted with anomalies. Compared to the alleged anomalies in the Yolanda relief operation where the Department of Social Welfare and Development, then headed by Dinky Soliman, was suspected of pilfering relief goods coming from other countries and substituting imported canned meat products with local sardines (aside of course from allegations of mishandling relief funds), the anomalies alleged in the SAP for the COVID-19 pandemic runs into epic proportions.
With the fund running to a couple of hundreds of billion pesos, former Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas’ supposedly unliquidated Yolanda relief funds running into a few hundred million pesos, is chicken.
For reports coming from the ground, it seems not only has the DSWD come up with its own qualifying criteria which effectively disregarded Duterte’s order to distribute the fund to 18 million families. The list of beneficiaries is said to have been manipulated to effect large-scale corruption.
Take the case of one barangay in Davao City with around 28,000 families. According to a local official there, the DSWD had only approved applications for SAP for only 13,000 families. Now, the chairman of that particular barangay is said to be avoiding contacts with his constituents as the 15,000 families left out by the DSWD is accusing him either of playing favorites or pocketing the money.
In District 3 in Manila, a source informed us that out of their 123 barangays, only 13 qualified — the 110 others were deemed to be well-off to deserve government assistance. While District 3 maybe home to a few commercial areas including Quiapo and the University Belt, a large part of the area is residential of which a substantial part forms urban poor settlements. That includes squatter colonies in Echague and behind the Central Market. And even those who don’t hail from those urban poor settlements cannot be considered to be well-off or members of upper middle class to be deprived of government assistance.
The same goes to District 6 in Sta. Mesa, Manila where almost all barangays were said to have been disqualified by the DSWD.
According to another source, residents of Barangay 184, Zone 16, are up in arms after having been disqualified for SAP, as they have been classified as a middle-class community even as most part of the community are composed of urban poor settlers.
The residents reportedly tried to get an audience with their chairman Delia Rodriquez, but she was reportedly unavailable each time the residents would troop to the barangay hall. Only a certain Upeng and a certain Lyza would be on hand to attend to them.
And that is all because of the criteria set forth by the DSWD which only they know.
So, on what grounds? What exactly is their criteria? From a simple mathematical equation, P200 billion is more than enough to provide two tranches of P5,000 each to 18 million families. P200 billion divided equally among 18 million families will give a payout of P11,111 per beneficiary. So, why is the DSWD not heeding Duterte’s order to give assistance to all of the 18 million families?
But not all problems are the sole creation of the DSWD.
In Valenzuela City, it seems there is a collusion between the DSWD and some local officials. A list of SAP beneficiaries for Barangay Mapulang Lupa reveals gross violations for the fund distribution.
From the list, it appears that Beneficiary Nos. 62, 63, 78, 79, 385, 386, 454, 455, 446, 447, 473, 474, 493, 494, 531, 532, 579, 580, 587, 588, 589, 590, 591, 633, 634, 641,642, 693, and 694 either have the same names with double entries or same family members with same surname and middle names.
According to the source who provided the document, Beneficiary No. 148 is said to own more than 20 apartments, while Beneficiary No. 475 is also reportedly affluent.
A video going viral in the social media also claims that a SAP beneficiary in Barangay Bagbaguin, also in Valenzuela City, allegedly received amelioration dole at least 36 times.
In another viral media post, though the area was not identified,a barangay chairman was shown threatening to arrest someone for repeatedly asking the list of those who received SAP fund in his barangay.
Social media also abound with claims that while some people have been asked to fill out forms for the social amelioration card, they were later informed they have been disqualified. The problem is the that other half of the form, the signed portion, was never given back to them. For what reasons, the local officials could not give any satisfactory answer.
These are only some of the issues raised against the DSWD and some local officials over their handling of the SAP. In fact, there are reports that some LGUs would want to retain their ECQ status so as not to lose their SAP provision. And all these, the DSWD has to answer neatly and convincingly.
Otherwise, as Duterte has warned, they have to answer in the appropriate court.