The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) already reached almost 81% of the total target for the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) in the region.
In an interview on Tuesday, DSWD director Grace Subong said that as of 8 p.m. on April 14, there were 43 local government units (LGUs) that signed their respective memorandums of agreement and downloaded the allocation for the SAP.
“That is already 81 percent of the total target, and we already have several cities and municipalities who have already started with their payouts,” she said.
The municipality of Tarragona, Davao Oriental had already started its payout on March 9. This was followed by the municipalities of Magsaysay and Sulop in Davao del Sur. Davao de Oro and Davao City have already started their payouts to some of the barangays.
In Davao City, Barangay Alejandra Navarro (Lasang) already started distributing the cash aid to qualified families.
Meanwhile, Subong said some municipalities in Davao del Norte are on the process of signing their MOA, a requirement for the fund to be downloaded to their local government units.
“The other barangays continue to cleanse their lists, finalize their lists,” she said. But the barangay officials already know the directive on when to start the payout to ensure that the beneficiaries will receive the subsidy on time.
Meanwhile, of the total 267,974 Pantawid Pampamilyang Pangkabuhayan Program (4Ps) beneficiaries, 92 percent or 246,374 beneficiaries already received their subsidy. Davao Region has an allocation of P6,000 for each beneficiary.
“On our remaining eight percent (which is) 21,600 (beneficiaries), we will be conducting a payout for those 4Ps beneficiaries who still do not have cash cards or their cash cards are still on process,” she said.
Since they don’t possess a cash card, the could not withdraw the subsidy from Land Bank of the Philippines. As a result, they would have to wait for the disbursement from the DSWD. “On April 16 to 23, we have a target of around 8,185 beneficiaries, where there will be a special disbursing officer who will conduct an onsite payout,” Subong said.
Subong added that they are also finalizing the list of the remaining 11,000 beneficiaries.
