The Quezon City government has earmarked P600 million for its expanded financial aid program amid the coronavirus disease19 pandemic.
The amount would come from the city’s P2.8-billion supplemental budget for 2020 to expand the coverage of its Kalingang QC financial assistance program to all vulnerable sectors.
“We saw the pressing need to expand the financial aid program after many ambulant and unregistered vendors were discovered during the first wave,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said.
Among the unregistered vendors who were not covered during the initial distribution of P2,000 cash aid are sellers of dry goods and cellular phone accessories, she added.
The expanded program shall also cover solo parents, persons with disability and senior citizens who are also affected by the Enhanced Community Quarantine due to COVID-19.
“We want to make sure that all vulnerable sectors will be covered so we allotted part of our supplemental fund for them,” Belmonte said.
The city government earlier allotted P200 million for its 100,000 residents, covering drivers of public utility jeeps, tricycles, pedicabs, taxis, transport network vehicle service and AUV express as well as market vendors and other daily wage earners.
As of April 23, 7 p.m., Quezon City has 1,085 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Rogelio Reyes, Public Employment Service Office chief, said as of April 21, around 36,582 beneficiaries have already received P2,000 each.
The city government is facing a huge logistics challenge as far as distribution of the cash aid to over 200,000 senior citizens.
“We are studying the logistics. It would be difficult for us since senior citizens are not allowed to go out of their homes because they are high risk to COVID-19,” Reyes said.
Going house to house with huge sums of money for distribution to the elderly could make social workers and treasury staff prone to hold-ups, and would therefore require tight security, he added.