Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto urged his constituents who are not eligible to receive cash assistance from the national government’s emergency subsidy program to delist themselves so that the financial aid could be received by those who really need it.
In a Facebook post, the 30-year-old city chief shared a picture of returned bills and extra food coupons provided by the city government. He lauded the mother who had the honest initiative to return it to them.
“May nanay na nakakuha ng sobrang 400 pesos na Food Coupons natin. Nagamit niya yung 200 sa talipapa, pero nakonsensiya. Kinabukasan, isinauli niya 400. (yung 200, in cash). Mas marami pa rin talaga ang tapat at may mabuting puso,” Sotto said.
Pasig city government previously handed out food coupons worth P400 to families of public school students which could be used to buy food items in Pasig’s Mega Market, mobile markets and community markets or “talipapa” amid the enhanced community quarantine.
Sotto in the comments section of his Facebook post added that 50 people have already delisted themselves from the list of cash beneficiaries in the emergency subsidy program, also known as the social amelioration program.
“Yung mga iba, please, magpa-delist na kayo. Malinaw ang instructions ng national (government) na bawal. Sumusweldo naman kayo ng mas malaki sa 8k na ayuda… ‘pag inantay niyo pang isa-isahin namin ang listahan bago mag-Pasig Supplemental SAP, makakasuhan pa kayo,” Sotto said.
Cash assistance from gov’t
The Department of Social Welfare and Development said that it will hold the local government units accountable if they give out cash subsidies to people who are not qualified to receive them.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government also ordered all of the barangay captains to list the beneficiaries of the emergency subsidy program for the sake of transparency.
DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said that the list must be posted in conspicuous public places, preferably in barangay halls, so that Filipinos can also “be informed” if they have received cash assistance from the government.
“Kung mayroon mang kulang o mali sa listahan, maaari itong aksyunan ng city o municipal government o ipagbigay-alam sa DSWD,” he said.
The emergency subsidy program was instituted by the government through DSWD to aid low-income families greatly affected by the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.
It aims to give indigent families P5,000 up to P8,000 of cash assistance, depending on their region’s minimum wage rate, to help them get by while onsite work suspension takes place amid quarantine period. Those eligible are the following:
- Beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pilipino Pamilyang Pilipino Program
- Informal economy workers (directly hired or occasional workers)
- Subcontracted workers
- Home workers
- House helpers
- Public transportation drivers (PUVs, pedicabs, tricycles and TNVS)
- Microentrepreneurs and producers
- Family enterprise owners
- Sub-minimum wage owners
- Farmers
- Employees affected by the no-work, no pay policy
- Stranded workers
- Solo parents
- Distressed overseas Filipino workers
- Indigent Indigenous Peoples
- Homeless individuals
- Other household members in the vulnerable sector (senior citizens, PWDs, pregnant and lactating women)
DSWD Undersecretary Rene Glene Paje on Thursday said that they have already handed out more than P27.9 billion cash assistance to around more than 5.7 million beneficiaries.