“The Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) is not “pork barrel”, and neither are barangay officials responsible for the list of its beneficiaries,” Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian said on Friday.
He emphasized that the agency’s field offices across the country “serve people in need, whether they are walk-in clients or were referred to by local government unit officials.”
“DSWD social workers process applications for AKAP and they determine the amount of aid to qualified beneficiaries,” Gatchalian said in a news release.
He made the statement in reply to the Dec. 26 statement of former Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio claiming that the cash assistance under AKAP “resembles the controversial pork barrel” and that “barangay officials submit the list of beneficiaries.”
Gatchalian also maintained that nowhere in the AKAP guidelines are barangay officials empowered to make the list of beneficiaries who will receive the cash assistance.
“With due respect to the former Supreme Court Justice, AKAP is not considered ‘pork barrel’ since any good Samaritan can refer potential beneficiaries and the barangay has nothing to do with AKAP based on our existing guidelines,” he said.
Likewise, Gatchalian pointed out that legislators and local officials can refer potential aid recipients, but the agency’s social workers are responsible for the vetting of the beneficiaries to make sure that they are eligible based on the AKAP guidelines.
“The original intention of AKAP is to protect the minimum wage earners and near-poor Filipinos from the effects of inflation that erode their buying power,” the social welfare chief said.
The General Appropriations Act of 2024, specifically Special Provision No. 3 of the DSWD budget, authorized the funding for AKAP amounting to P26.7 billion which will serve as financial assistance to minimum wage earners falling under the category of low income that were severely affected by the rising inflation.
Almost 5 million “near poor” Filipinos have benefitted from AKAP from January to Dec. 26 this year.