Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday slammed the failure of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to immediately distribute the government's social amelioration program (SAP).
READ: DOJ runs after SAP anomalies
Cayetano said what the DSWD did has negated President Rodrigo Duterte's hard work to coordinate closely with congressional leaders in passing the Bayanihan Heal As Once Act to ensure the immediate delivery of financial aid to the beneficiaries.
“So, I go back to President Duterte’s consistency. Those of you, those of us who knew the President before he became President, his policy is simple: Don’t let the people wait, deliver service promptly.
That’s still his policy as President. He always tells us, no red tape, no corruption,” Cayetano said.
He recalled before Congress approved the Bayanihan Law last March 23, agencies promised to distribute the first tranche of P100 billion “in 10 days.”
“But what happened? The distribution for April was finished in May. The enhanced community quarantine was lifted in many areas. It’s not clear now what will happen to the second tranche. But they told us that P200 billion was needed to help 18 million poor and near-poor families: P100 billion for April and P100 billion for May,” Cayetano said.
Cayetano called on the heads of the agencies "for a better, smoother system of distributing the second P100-billion financial aid to millions of low-income families.”
Addressing members of the House of Representatives before they adjourned their First Regular Session last Friday, Cayetano said the DSWD, Department of Health, Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), and other SAP implementers should have learned their lessons from their mistakes in the delivery of the first P100 billion last month.
Before adjourning Friday, the House approved on second reading a measure on financial inclusion, which is part of a reform package designed to let the government upgrade the delivery of its future social amelioration programs
READ: QC completes SAP distribution
At the same time, Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said House Bill (HB) 1297, the proposed ‘Bangko sa Baryo Act," once enacted, would avoid a repeat of the hitches that plagued the initial release of cash subsidies to 18 million poor and low-income hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
HB 1297 will authorize “cash agents” to help serve the banking needs of people living in faraway places without banks, said Villafuerte, the bill's lead author.
The chamber passed HB 1297 in support of President Duterte’s policy on financial inclusion. It was earlier approved by the House committee on banks and financial intermediaries chaired by Quirino Rep. Junie Cua.
Deputy Speaker Henry Oaminal, who chairs the panel’s technical working group (TWG) that studied the bill, had endorsed HB 1297 during the virtual hearing of the House banks committee last week.