THERE are provisions in the 2020 national budget, as well as already established social amelioration programs that government may resort to in order to help the sectors most impacted by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) forced by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara said.
These options to ease the unprecedented public pain as a result of the harsh but necessary lockdown are topped by the over P108-billion allocation to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), Angara added.
At the weekend, Angara called on agencies such as the DSWD to find ways to get the cash grants and other aid to families affected by the ECQ immediately.
At a time when almost all businesses have closed and movement of people is restricted by the Luzon-wide lockdown, imposed last March 17 to combat the spread of Covid-19, Angara noted that “people are becoming desperate and in need of assurance from its government that they will be taken care of.”
The “uninterrupted implementation of programs such as the 4Ps, which are even more critical to marginalized families at this time when most likely some, if not all, of their members are not being paid any wages,” is crucial, Angara said.
Under the 2020 General Appropriations Act, the DSWD was given P108.765 billion for the 4Ps, which involves providing cash grants to the poorest of the poor, amounting to P1,350 (health and nutrition, and rice subsidy) per family per month plus P300/month/child attending day care or primary school; P500/month/child for junior high school; and P700/month/child attending senior high school. This will serve 4.4 million households nationwide.
Apart from the 4Ps, the DSWD also provides social pension to indigent seniors (P23.184 billion under the 2020 GAA) and unconditional cash transfer (P36.488 billion), Angara noted.
Under the social pension to indigent seniors program, indigent senior citizens receive a monthly stipend of P500.
With the unconditional cash transfer (UCT) program, poor households are provided with P300 per month in cash grants to cope with the impacts of rising prices of goods and commodities.
Noting the challenges in the delivery of these benefits to beneficiaries during the quarantine period, Angara urged the DSWD to coordinate closely with the local government units, who have been undertaking their own initiatives to deliver food and other assistance to their constituents while they are stuck inside their homes.
“Many LGUs are going door-to-door to deliver food and other benefits to our countrymen in dire need of help these days. The DSWD can tap them to bring the assistance to the family beneficiaries, especially those who still don’t have the EMV [Europay, Mastercard, Visa] cards,” Angara said, in a mix of English and Filipino.
The drivers of jeepneys, tricycles and taxis are also reeling from the quarantine and have no other means to earning to feed their family, he added.
Under Section 87 of the general provisions of the 2020 GAA on the implementation of nationally-funded projects, “the national government may designate LGUs as implementing agencies” for projects, services and other programs appropriated in this Act of agencies, including the DSWD.
Angara said the setting up of community soup kitchens as what some LGUs are doing, should be considered for all the areas under quarantine.