Only 48 percent of beneficiaries in Cebu City got P5K financial aid

By: Delta Dyrecka Letigio - 3 years ago

This is a breakdown of beneficiaries and payout for the P5,000 financial aid to Cebu City Typhoon Odette victims. | Courtesy of Councilor Jerry Guardo.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Two months since Typhoon Odette, Cebu City has yet to distribute the P5,000 financial aid to more than half of the owners of damaged structures.

The Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) presented its progress report in the release of the P5,000 financial aid that was allocated over P580 million from the P1 billion City Council approved budget for typhoon response.

In the report of DSWS, there are 52,284 beneficiaries identified in the North District and 63,841 beneficiaries from the South District, for a total of 116,125 beneficiaries.

However, the DSWS was only able to distribute the financial aid to 30,648 beneficiaries in the north and 25,767 beneficiaries in the south, for a total of 56,451 beneficiaries amounting to P282 million.

Challenges

Portia Basmayor, the head of the DSWS, explained to the City Council’s committee on budget and finance that much of the financial aid had not yet been claimed due to clerical errors that the DSWS was still correcting.

Basmayor admitted that there had been many challenges in the distribution, not only in clerical errors but also in the validation of the beneficiaries.

She said that a structure owner could only receive P5,000 even if he or she owned multiple structures in different barangays in the city.

“Bisan pila ka balay, usa ra gyod ang balay ang maclaim,” said Basmayor.

(Even if the owner of the house has several houses, he would he can claim only one.)

This is why the city government will use all its manpower resources to distribute the financial aid house-to-house, to avoid redundancy in the release of the funds.

Only 12 out of the 80 barangays have yet to receive the P5,000, but the city government will release the aid to these remaining barangays starting March 1, 2022, through house-to-house distribution.

A warning

Mayor Michael Rama has warned those involved in anomalies in the distribution that they will be investigated in due time.

“Kamo nga nagtuo nga maayong laki sa City Hall, amo ta mong ipaembestigar. Husto na, ayaw namog duwa-duwag tinonto. Wala koy ginganlan nga sacred cow. Kung madiskubrehan nga nanikas, we will make the appropriate actions,” said Rama.

(Those, who think they are skillful in City Hall, we will have you investigated. Stop those foolishness. I did not name any sacred cow. If you will get caught cheating, then we will take appropriate sanctions.)

In the meantime, he wants all hands on deck for the distribution of the financial aid.

The mayor has specifically instructed to distribute the aid house-to-house so that each recipient can be validated properly. He is willing to use all 10,000 employees of the city if necessary.

“Kinahanglan nga 27 kabuok departamento, tabangan sa Milo…pasalamat tag manabang ang barangay but we can operate with 10,000 of our employees and bringing all of these to the household level,” he said.

(You need the 27 departments, to help Milo…We are grateful because those at the barangay helped us, but we can operate with 10,000 employees and bringing all of these to the household level.)