THE Cebu City Government will distribute its financial assistance to senior citizens and persons with disabilities through cash cards.
This City decided to do away with its physical distribution of its cash aid to avoid mass gathering, which can spread the coronavirus disease 2019 at a faster rate.
Mayor Edgardo Labella signed on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, the memorandum of agreement with Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) as the City’s partner in the use of cash cards.
LBP has waived the P12.4 million fee for the cash cards. Each cash card is worth P150.
Executive order
Labella also issued an executive order on Oct. 2, stating the guidelines on the financial assistance distribution through the use of cash cards.
The mayor’s Executive No. 96 states that senior citizens and persons with disabilities must update their personal data in the City’s system either through online or through the focal persons in each barangay.
For online updating, beneficiaries can visit https://www.cebucity.gov.ph. After opening the website, they can click on the online services feature. After opening it, they must select the “update beneficiary record” on the menu.
The last names of recipients and pictures of their identification cards must be submitted through the city government’s website. Then, they must fill out the online form.
To submit their photos online, the beneficiaries can either scan and upload a recent photo or take a photo against a white background using their device.
The updated data will be forwarded to the database of the City.
The beneficiaries will also receive system-generated text messages confirming their updated data.
The senior citizens and persons with disability who do not have access to the internet will be taken care of by focal persons from the Department of Social Welfare and Services. The focal persons will visit the beneficiaries’ residences to assist them in the updating of their records.
The cash cards will be distributed through a house-to-house scheme. Labella said the distribution may take place in the last week of November or in the first week of December.
By that time, the senior citizens are entitled to P4,000 cash assistance, covering the months of September, October, November and December.
Labella said there are qualified senior citizens and persons with disabilities who will not be given cash cards such as those beneficiaries residing outside Cebu City, those in less accessible mountain barangays and those who are already bed-ridden.
The beneficiaries who are currently not in the city can claim their cash assistance on a date and venue which will be announced by the City. For beneficiaries living in mountain barangays, their cash assistance may be distributed through on-site or house-to-house schemes.
The bed-ridden recipients will get their assistance through a house-to-house scheme. (JJL)