PAYOUT for the first tranche of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) was completed, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Leo Quintilla, DSWD-Cordillera director, said with the 100 percent completed payout, 299,000 families in the region benefitted from the SAP amounting to P1.56 billion.
"Ninety-eight percent of the local government units submitted their liquidation report. This is important because DSWD is now preparing for the second tranche wherein before it will be released, 100 percent liquidation is needed," Quintilla said.
Encoding procedures is currently being done by DSWD to do cross matching with other agencies of government who have provided social amelioration or cash aids to beneficiaries and to prevent duplication of recipients.
"As part of the preparations for the second tranche of SAP, 8,500 additional beneficiaries have been included however, based on the new Memorandum Circular issued by our central office, additional eligibility is required for low income families having pensioners receiving below P5,500. The Department of the Interior and Local Government will help in coming up with the additional list," Quintilla said.
Under the new Memorandum Circular, the inclusion and exclusion process still remain with an additional eligibility requirement of pensioners belonging to low income families but at the same time, have not received any cash aids from the first tranche, aside from being subjected to assessment by the local social welfare officers and cross matching procedures.
Meanwhile, DSWD is currently studying the possibility of looking for other ways of distributing the second tranche of SAP for easier transfer procedures.
"The process could be through direct payout, digital transfer, or transfer to other agencies or what would be the easiest way to provide assistance to the low income families. All areas in CAR will be included in the second tranche despite being under the general community quarantine or modified general community quarantine," Quintilla added.
DSWD-Cordillera will include as recipients those placed under the wait listed provided by the LGUs while awaiting the final details of the guidelines for the second tranche of SAP.