CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said that before the city could distribute the financial assistance to persons with disability (PWDs), the city would have to refine the protocols for the distribution.
In a phone interview, Labella said that similar to the senior citizens’ financial assistance, there would be challenges amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
He said that the distribution could not be done publicly to avoid violating the social distancing protocol.
“We need to check the protocol. We need to ensure the safety of the PWDs,” said the mayor.
Read more: Senior citizen cash aid distribution to start on May 16
He said the city would be using the recent distribution of the financial assistance for senior citizens as guide or concept for the distribution to the PWDs as well.
The challenge for him was the house to house distribution because the addresses of the senior citizens were sometimes not updated and the disbursers found it difficult to find the beneficiaries.
“We will need to study how we can distribute the money safely,” said the mayor.
The mayor could not provide specific target dates for the distribution to the PWDs, but he assured the city would distribute the financial assistance.
The PWDs are also entitled to P3,000 worth of financial assistance for the months of March, April, and May./dbs