Some 500 small businessmen are expected to receive P2,000 assistance from the Quezon City government this year to boost entrepreneurship in the city.
The monetary aid, called “Small Income-Generating Assistance,” or Siga program, is being given annually by the administration of Mayor Herbert M. Bautista through its Social Services Department (SSD).
It started in 1979 and was continued by Bautista.
The mayor believes in the intervention of the local government to small businessmen for them to have an additional budget that will improve and sustain their businesses.
Small business ventures like variety store and street-food sellers are usually the principal source of income by ordinary people who wanted their selves as their bosses instead of being employed by big businessmen.
In a news statement issued by the city government’s Public Affairs and Information Service Office (Paiso) presently headed by City Information Officer Ares P. Gutierrez, the Siga program seeks to “help small business owners by allotting them a P2,000 financial support each [specifically the] existing small-scale businesses [in order for them] to grow and [perhaps] diversify.”
SSD-Vocational Development Division Officer In Charge Elma Ocrisma said her department has started releasing the financial assistance to the beneficiaries.
Small businessmen need to apply to avail themselves of the financial assistance. “To qualify, applicants must undergo trainings [first], where they are taught basic business-management skills and strategies. A financial-literacy training is also given before monetary support is awarded the applicants,” Ocrisma explained.
In the same statement, Ocrisma pointed out: “People come to us for assistance in their small business, we asses them to see if they qualify, and then we tell them the requirements for the assistance application.”
Ocrisma emphasized that their priorities are the “indigents and struggling micro-businesses like sari-sari stores and corner-street diners” in the 142 barangays of Quezon City.
She noted that the beneficiaries are required to present receipts and other proofs of purchase to ensure that the P2,000 monetary assistance was properly and honestly used for the development of their businesses.
Ocrisma said the SSD “workers monitor the applicants’ progress with their business. They visit the market spots of the awarded applicants in local wet markets and determine if their businesses are flourishing [or not].”
