MANILA, Philippines — Less than half of the country's local government units have accomplished paying out aid in their respective localities after 58 days of enhanced community quarantine, President Rodrigo Duterte's latest report to Congress shows.
According to President Rodrigo Duterte's seventh report on the use of his special powers, only 714 of 1,634, or 47% of municipal and city governments have been able to fully roll out aid for their intended beneficiaries.
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Still, the significant jump from the previous week was a welcome improvement: in his previous report, Duterte said 207 out of 1,634 LGUs—or only 12%—had accomplished 100-percent payout in their respective localities as of April 30.
After a relatively sluggish start, social amelioration aid—intended to assist sectors left sidelined and without income by the enhanced community quarantine—seems to be picking up: only a fourth (10,292,310 of 13,556,093) of non 4P-enrolled households are still without their aid, while 87% (3.9 million out of 4.4 million) of 4Ps beneficiaries have received theirs.
Additionally, 40,418 families of some 90,000 transport network vehicle service (TNVS) and public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers (45%) have been given aid, with the entirety of the disbursed P323.3-million fund supposedly being received, though a total P720 million has been allotted.
"The DSWD has already informed all local chief executives (LCEs) of the [National Capital Region] that the next set of payout for the TNVS and PUVs in the NCR will be released this week. The list of driver beneficiaries will be updated for verification by the LCEs," the president's report read.
"In response to the observations of the Senate, I wish to clarify that tricycle and pedicab drivers are included in the target beneficiaries of the DSWD. Further, the DSWD is already in the process of finalizing the new guidelines for waitlisted families [and] undertaking steps to validate the lists," it added.
'Waiting for directive'
The deadline to distribute the first tranche of social amelioration aid has been extended to Sunday due to delays at the local government level, with the DSWD placing most of the blame on LGUs themselves.
Cash assistance coursed through local government units is intended for the over 13 million households who are not enrolled in the government's Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino (4Ps) cash transfer program, a cash transfer program for Filipinos considered the poorest of the poor.
"Meanwhile, the Department of Interior and Local Government requested the LGUs which have already completed their distribution to liquidate the amounts distributed with the DSWD," the report read.
Asked about secondary disbursements for local governments through with the first tranche, DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao said that the department was still waiting on directives from the Office of the President.
"We are waiting for the directive from the OP. Meantime, all LGUs that have completed their payouts are encouraged to submit their liquidation reports so DSWD can start conducting post-payout validation," Dumlao said.
The Palace previously said that local government units in areas already under general community quarantine might not receive their second wave of cash and material aid, although it also earlier promised a more efficient distribution for the second tranche.
"We admit that the first tranche has not been completely distributed to our countrymen... But we promise you that we have learned from the earlier experience of distributing the first tranche and we will definitely be more efficient in distributing the second tranche," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a press briefing.
The full report may be accessed here: