The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on Wednesday, Aug. 24, for a more organized educational cash assistance distribution.
Based on the MOA, local government units (LGUs) will identify the venues for the payout of the aid for students-in-crisis set every Saturday until Sept. 24.
“This partnership is what our government would like to establish – to have unity in action, employ bayanihan, a lesson we have learned well, especially last Saturday which was an eye opener to the need of Filipinos for aid affected by the pandemic,” DSWD Sec. Erwin Tulfo said.
The DSWD reminded claimants of the cash aid to register first before heading to payout sites, as walk-in beneficiaries will no longer be entertained to prevent crowding.
With the MOA, the DILG and local government units will provide assistance on the payout but the list of beneficiaries and the money will still come from the DSWD. The P500 million budget for the program has been expanded to P1.5 billion.
“All of the names of beneficiaries will come from the DSWD. The paymaster – the money will not come from the mayors, the governors, the barangay captains. It will all come from the DSWD,” DILG Sec. Benjamin Abalos Jr. said in a Palace briefing on Wednesday.
“We will provide support in terms of additional manpower. If they need [a] site, we will discuss this, we will provide additional sites. Our Philippine National Police will be there,” he added.
Abalos said they are also looking into arranging the payout schedule alphabetically based on beneficiaries’ last names.
Tulfo clarified that beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program are not covered by the assistance. He also urged parents of beneficiaries to avoid bringing their young children to payout sites.
The assistance, which distribution began last Aug. 20, provides indigent elementary pupils with P1,000, high school students with P2,000, senior high schools students with P3,000, and college students with P4,000.
Meanwhile, Tulfo said they will relay to the Department of Education the reported selling of enrolment certificates which is a requirement for the assistance. – Reports from Kenneth Paciente and Alec Go– gb
