Well, they’re at it again.
We mean the payout of the P5 thousand Ayuda para sa Kapus ang Kita (AKAP for short) from the national government. Yes, yesterday a payout was done in the gymnasium of Barangay Crossing Bayabas in Toril district. And the recipients came from as far as some barangays in the Tugbok and Calinan administrative districts of Davao City, double – even triple – ride for some beneficiaries..
Adding to the misfortune of the beneficiaries from a barangay in Tugbok District was that the information about the scheduled payout was made to the recipients by the concerned coordinators only last Wednesday night or roughly less than twelve hours before the schedule. The result was that some of the beneficiaries were already out of their barangay for some urgent personal reasons. Some ended having problems in securing transportation since they have to be at the payout venue earlier to avoid the rush of recipients.
Others have to borrow money to pay for the transportation cost in going to Barangay Crossing Bayabas and back to their homes. They also have to buy lunch as they were certain the payout will last longer considering the number of recipients coming from various barangays.
And we were not mistaken. Some neighbors of ours who were among the AKAP beneficiaries left our place before 8 in the morning hoping their required documents for identification can be validated earlier before the arrival of the bulk of recipients. They brought with them provision for lunch as they said they were advised by those who were paid out almost a month ago.
Indeed their waiting had crossed noon time as they told their friends and relatives that they got their “ayuda” a little over 2 p.m. yesterday. They were back at their respective residence at about 4 o’clock p.m.
Yes, by lumping recipients coming from distant barangays instead of those that are contiguous with each other only further diminishes the net amount of the cash assistance. Just imagine the cost of transportation from barangays somewhere in Tugbok or Calinan going to Toril and back! Think as well of the cost of the meal for lunch and the two snacks and one or two bottled water to quash their thirst away while waiting in a very hot atmosphere which was yesterday.
And we can also figure out the predicament of hundreds of senior citizens and persons with disability/ies (PWDs) waiting for their turn to be paid of what is due them.
We really do not know who decided on the scheme to lump “ayuda” recipients to be paid out in certain barangays so distant from the residence of other beneficiaries. We believe that whichever agency is primarily tasked to implement the AKAP releases should rethink its current methodology. Is it because it is convenient for the politicians who facilitated the AKAP’s release done in one place where beneficiaries coming from other barangays will have to be there and possibly becoming captive audiences for a subtle campaign?
Our take on the matter is that the thousands of recipients will be more appreciative to the politician-payout facilitator and the agency payer if in the succeeding payouts it be done in one of three, four or even five neighboring barangays for better accessibility and lesser expense. That way the P5 thousand cash assistance will be intact when the recipients go back to their homes. In that manner we can be certain that the entire “ayuda” will fully serve its purpose – that of augmenting the income of those who have less.
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In an interview with Sen. Robinhood Padilla in The Hague, Netherlands he somehow insinuated that his primary purpose of going there is not only to visit incarcerated former President Rodrigo R. Duterte. The actor-turned senator said that as President of Duterte’s political party, the PDP-Laban, he wanted to seek the advice of the former chief executive on how to carry out the party’s campaign for the May 2025 midterm election. Padilla mentioned that the party lacks the necessary logistics, specifically financial, to conduct an effective nationwide campaign.
Padilla also mentioned about Duterte’s presence in rallies as the biggest crowd drawer. So much so that when people know the former President is attending the scheduled rally, people troop to the venue with or without money.
Our take on the matter however, is that even if the Duterte candidates will not anymore conduct rallies in the provinces and cities outside Metro Manila, it is most likely they will still win the majority of the Senate seats. Why? It is because the former Presidents’ arrest and subsequent turnover to the ICC, is getting acknowledgment from Filipinos worldwide. And many of them still vote in the Philippines during election through what is called overseas voting.
Even inside the country, the arrest and detention are getting substantial attention from the Filipinos. Specifically, it has created a massive consciousness among our countrymen as can be gleaned from the posts on the various social media platforms.
In other words, Duterte’s feat has substituted effectively his physical presence in his party’s campaign rallies all over the country. And it is done in a much lesser cost.
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