The Interior department on Thursday extended to May 10 the deadline for the local government units in Metro Manila to complete the distribution of the first tranche of the financial assistance to poor families under the Social Amelioration Program.
“Metro Manila is a populous region, so we have to give them additional days,” Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in a television interview.
He also ordered the Philippine National Police to exempt the people distributing cash aid and its recipients from the curfew in their localities.
Año said local government officials were already doubling their efforts to finish the distribution of cash assistance from the government.
Malacañang said Some 75 percent of the low-income households had already received the cash aid from the national government under the SAP.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said only 25 percent of the first tranche of the emergency subsidies had yet to be distributed to the SAP beneficiaries.
Under the P200-billion SAP, the local government units are tasked to distribute the emergency subsidies of P5,000 to P8,000 to the poor families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Labor department said Thursday more than a million workers had already received financial assistance from it, including Filipino workers abroad, as it winds up its social amelioration programs to help cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said his department’s assistance programs had reached 1,059,387 workers and had disbursed about P4.44 billion and a separate P1.05 billion in emergency funds.
He said the department would need an additional P2 billion in emergency funds to help a significant portion of the 368,703 migrant who had sought the cash aid as of May 5.
But the Kabataan Party-list said the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte was still too slow in releasing the social amelioration payouts to the target beneficiaries.
The government’s lack of urgency and slow rate of action were not suitable for a public health emergency like the coronavirus pandemic, the group said.
Meanwhile, the Makabayan bloc of the House of Representatives is seeking the continued implementation of the government’s social amelioration programs during the imposition of the general community quarantine.
In Manila, the US Embassy said the United States government was providing an additional P289 million ($5.9 million) to help support the Philippines’ battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The US Agency for International Development said as part of this new assistance, it will collaborate with 18 local government units, particularly the country’s hardest-hit areas, to promote effective crisis management and implement response plans.