DSWD welcomes move to publish list of beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development welcomes the initiative to let local government units provide the public a list of their beneficiaries of the social amelioration program (SAP) cash subsidy for low-income families adversely affected by the enhanced community quarantine.

In a virtual press briefing, DSWD Undersecretary for special concerns Camilo Gudmalin said that the initiative of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) assures transparency and will aid in identifying cases of issuance to unqualified families.

“We are thankful to the DILG for this initiative to inform everybody who were the beneficiaries of the SAP subsidy program,” Gudmalin said, stressing that both departments sought transparency in the implementation.

He added that the LGUs’ assistance in distributing the SAP cash subsidy was crucial, since the DSWD does not have the manpower resource to distribute the cash subsidy to the targeted 18 million low-income families all over the country.

“We can see in our monitoring that the distribution is going on continuously in all the LGUs, simultaneously. If this trend continues smoothly, then we can finish the distribution of the subsidy before the end of the month,” Gudmalin said.

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the department is also studying the proposal requiring barangays to post on Facebook the list of their SAP beneficiaries.

He said the list that will be posted in barangay halls would not serve its purpose much because people are quarantined in their homes. – With Ding Cervantes