‘Left out’ families may get declined SAP

Beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) in Getafe, Bohol receive their emergency cash subsidy while observing physical distancing. |Photo from DSWD-7

CEBU CITY, Philippines —Families who were “left out” in the original list of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) beneficiaries may benefit from the honesty of those who returned their P6,000 share of the cash aid.

While a lot continue to question the “listing” of SAP beneficiaries in their communities, several grantees who were supposed to receive the P6,000- cash aid stepped forward to reject or return the money.

In Lapu-Lapu City alone, at least 139 individuals declined to claim their cash assistance or turned these over to the city government. Most of them said they have already benefited from other government assistance programs like the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT).

Shalaine Marie Lucero, assistant regional director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7), said the LGUs may decide to replace the original beneficiaries of the cash aids with left out families in their communities who were not included in the original SAP list due to the cap in the number of beneficiaries in each area.

READ: Lapu social worker faces probe for inclusion of relatives, son’s gf in SAP list

The SAP cash assistance program is meant to aid 18 million “poorest of the poor” households nationwide who were badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the DSWD is the lead agency in implementing SAP, they partnered with the LGUs in the listing and verification of eligible residents and in the distribution of the cash aid.

“Actually, nag-suggest na mi ana sa LGU nga kung naay  iuli ila lang nang ihatag sa eligible. I-replace ra ba. Replacement lang ang ilang gamiton basta naa lang silay lista sa mga wala nabayari pero eligible, ila lang i-replace,” Lucero told CDN Digital on Monday, May 11.

(We already made a suggestion for the LGUs to give the returned cash to eligible individuals.  They will be made replacements.  They only needed to use the term replacement to refer to those who were already listed as eligible but were unable to actually receive the cash assistance.)

Since the deadline for the distribution of the SAP aid was on Sunday, May 10, Lucero said the LGUs will have to already decide whether they will replace the original beneficiaries and distribute the returned cash aid to other eligibles or they will just liquidate the funds and revert it back to DSWD.

Although the LGUs may replace those who returned their cash aid with other eligible residents, Lucero reminded LGUs that they will still have to follow the policies in distributing the cash aid.

“They (LGUs) have to stick to the policies that it will only be P6,000 and for the eligble. Kung ang ilang beneficiaries nag-uli kay nagtuo sila nga dili sila eligible, ila ra nang replace-san kay naa man na silay left out families,”  Lucero said.

(The LGUs will have to strick to our policy that only those eligible should be given the P6,000 assistance. In the event that beneficiaries would opt to return the cash because they feel that they are eligible to receive this, they will have to be replaced by left out families.)

Residents who are eligible to receive the SAP aid include seniors, differently-abled persons, vulnerable families, and those coming from the informal economy sector. / dcb