The city government and the Department of Social Welfare and Development are currently addressing some of the problems encountered in the distribution of the second tranche of Social Amelioration Program assistance to beneficiaries in Baguio.
City Social Welfare and Development Officer Betty Fangasan said a total of 42,719 families in the city have qualified for the SAP’s second tranche based on validations done from the barangay, city, regional, to the national Inter-Agency Task Force level.
From the number, 9,061 qualified beneficiaries were not accommodated by Paymaya because some of their records cannot be validated through this service provider.
Other recipients also do not own mobile phones that support the GCash or Paymaya applications and therefore were not able to receive notifications or updates on the release of the assistance.
“What DSWD did was they went to the barangays and paid it through the barangays. Anyway, DSWD told us the distribution will be until Oct. 31, so they will just have to wait from Paymaya or will be paid directly through their barangays,” she said.
She said after tedious assessment, about 5,000 have yet to receive from Paymaya.
The first tranche of the aid was released through direct payment and handled by respective local government units.
Fangasan explained that while glitches are being experienced, releasing the SAP through financial service providers is implemented to facilitate its release, but they understand that not all beneficiaries are knowledgeable or have suitable mobile phones for such mode of payment.
She said it is important for the recipients to provide their complete data and other circumstances so that their qualification can be properly validated.
“We thought having financial service providers would be efficient. It turns out there are things that have to be studied for easier distribution. For us, if only we follow the protocols, it would be easy, if they provided all the data,” she said.
There are also at least 60 individuals who complained for not being included in the list of qualified recipients. They were advised to bring their SAP form for re-evaluation.
A total of 47,287 families in the city were SAP recipients during the first tranche.
The number was trimmed down to 42,719 families for the second tranche after it was found through validation that they are not really qualified because they are either living alone, they have already received benefits or assistance from being a 4Ps member, duplication or having received assistance from other agencies, some of their family members already received in other provinces, or some are receiving regular pension. – Hanna C. Lacsamana
April 19, 2024
