THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Central Visayas targets to finish the distribution of the cash subsidy under the Social Amelioration Program's (SAP) second tranche, including the assistance for waitlisted family beneficiaries, by first week of November 2020.
Shalaine Lucero, DSWD assistant regional director, said the department aims to finish the payout conducted by special disbursing officers (SDOs) by October 15 to 22, while the payout undertaken by various financial service providers (FSP) they have partnered with is expected to be done by the end of the month of October, if not, by the first week of November.
The payouts for the SAP 2 and of the cash aid for the waitlisted families (those eligible but were not included during the first tranche) are currently undertaken by the DSWD through its SDOs and partner FSPs.
Lucero said they are hopeful that they could hit this target completion date, but should there still be beneficiaries that cannot claim their cash aid during their scheduled payout date, they will still work on it and will give extension.
"Our intention, really, is to give all the beneficiaries the assistance intended for them so that we will not be returning these funds," she said in Cebuano.
As of October 4, the DSWD-Central Visayas has already paid a total of 89,669 waitlisted family beneficiaries in Cebu. This amounts to P1,076,028,000 in funds.
The number is at 81.39 percent of the total number of waitlisted beneficiaries in Cebu that are set to receive the cash aid.
The DSWD-Central Visayas has also paid a total of P121,254,000 to a total of 20,209 (82.64 percent) waitlisted beneficiaries in areas outside Cebu.
In Central Visayas, waitlisted beneficiaries in Cebu received P12,000, while waitlisted families in Bohol, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor only received P6,000 for their emergency subsidy.
This is based on Executive Order 112 s. of 2020, which states that DSWD should target low-income families who are under enhanced community quarantine in the month of May.
Moreover, the DSWD-Central Visayas has also paid a total of P2,466,168,000 to a total of 411,028 non-Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Progam (4Ps) beneficiaries in Cebu who received the second tranche of the SAP aid.
This is already 78.19 percent of the total target non-4Ps beneficiaries who will receive the SAP second tranche.
Of the 411,028 paid beneficiaries, 74,612 were paid by DSWD's SDO while 336,416 were paid by FSPs.
Lucero admitted that among the challenges they encountered during the payout was the lack of SDOs that can cater simultaneously to different payout areas and the fact that they are controlling the number of beneficiaries they invite in one setting, as they also observe the social distancing protocol.
This is in addition to problems and unsuccessfully claimed cash aids encountered in the FSP payout.
For instance, Lucero said there are a lot of unsuccessful claims via PayMaya, as this structure requires the beneficiaries to download the PayMaya application using their smartphones.
"Daghang wala naka-download sa app. There are those nga nag lahi na og contact numbers or usa ka number nga shared by neighbors. Kato tanang beneficiaries nga naay problem with their mobile phone numbers and dunay mismatch with their information, unsuccessful to sila tanan," she said.
What PayMaya did, she said, is to return a portion of the fund equivalent to those unsuccessful claims. As of now, they have re-processed about 11,000 claims, which they either transferred to other FSP or have assigned to the SDOs.
Among the FSP they tapped is the StarPay, which, she said, has many partner merchants such as the MLhuiller and Cebuana Lhuiller.
StarPay, she said, is set to finish creating a Beneficiary Reference Number (BRN) this week. Should StarPay turn over the BRN to DSWD-Central Visayas this week, Lucero said they will immediately notify the beneficiaries.
"Ang among challenge karon is basin maabtan mi sa panahon sa pagsapaw na ning SAP 2 sa Bayanihan 2," she said.
Bayanihan 2 is still a cash subsidy intended for poor or low-income families. However, unlike Bayanihan 1 (which covers the SAP 1 and 2), Bayanihan 2 is intended for those families who were not able to receive any cash aid from SAP 1 and 2.
She said the number of beneficiaries for Bayanihan 2 in the region will only be determined after the finalization of the number of those families not covered by SAP 1 and 2.
She said they have already forwarded the names submitted by local government units to them to the DSWD central office and is currently subject for revalidation. (WBS)