The House of Representatives will investigate the unwarranted delay in the distribution of the P200-billion financial aid to 18 million poor and near-poor household beneficiaries targeted under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Law which Congress passed last March 23.
Rep. Mike Defensor of party-list group Anakalusugan said this Wednesday, noting that Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano had authorized an inquiry into this “at the right time.”
He said Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, Deputy Speaker Michael Romero, and other House leaders and members had supported the planned investigation.
Defensor, also vice chairman of the House Committee on Health, said the inquiry was in response to complaints from lawmakers and local government officials about the delay in and the manner of distribution of financial assistance.
“We did our job in expeditiously passing the Bayanihan law and President (Rodrigo) Duterte did his job in promptly downloading the necessary funds. But problems were encountered in the implementation of the financial aid program,” Defensor said.
He said the House would allow the implementing agencies to finish their task before starting its investigation, which aims to prevent the occurrence of similar issues in the future.
“We have to have protocols for this. We cannot delay the support needed by our people. Other means such as electronic money transfer should be the standard to avoid contact,” Defensor said in reaction to the long lines and grouping of people seen all over Metro Manila.
Under the Bayanihan law, the 18 million household beneficiaries are to get P5,000 to P8,000 each last month and again this month, depending on the minimum wage in their regions. Those in Metro Manila are entitled to P8,000.
The 18 million include 4.4 million families covered by the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, who are receiving up to P2,500 in monthly cash grants, which are to be deducted from the P5,000-P8,000 Bayanihan assistance.
As of last week, Defensor said of the 18 million household targets, 10.3 million, including 3.8 million 4Ps families, had actually received the assistance.
This means that 7.7 million households were still awaiting their financial aid, he said.
In supporting the investigation, Romualdez said a lot of “inefficiencies” hampered aid delivery to the poor.
“We share Congressman Defensor’s concerns in making sure that the policies that had been made by President Duterte, that these all trickle down expediently and efficiency to the benefit of the Filipino people,” he said.
He said the House would continue working with the executive branch “so that we can win as one and we shall defeat this Covid-19 pandemic together as Filipino people.”
Possible unrest
Warning about a possible social unrest, Sen. Cynthia Villar joined the mounting clamor to allow workers in the construction, agriculture and manufacturing sectors to return to work as they were going hungry.
She said these workers, who have been adversely affected by the prevailing enhanced community quarantine, were also suffering from undue stress since they were away from their families aside from having no source of income.
“It’s doubly difficult for them,” said Villar as she urged the government to urgently address the situation of stranded and displaced workers in Luzon.
"I agree with those who say that there is a ‘humanitarian crisis in the making’ in the current situation of those laborers who are not only stranded in their workplaces but also away from their families,” Villar added.
The senator recommended that on top of helping the stranded workers to go back to their homes in the provinces, they should also be given the option to return to their work.
"Many of them would rather stay here and continue working to provide for their families. So, those are willing to stay should be allowed to work," she added.
Majority of the stranded and displaced workers are from the NCR and Calabarzon areas. Villar noted that 70 percent of the GDP of the Philippines is in NCR, Calabarzon and Central Luzon.
The construction sector accounts for 10 percent of the workforce in the country.
There is an estimated 3.9 million construction workers as of 2018. The Philippine Construction Association said 1.3 million workers were expected to lose or had in fact lost their jobs due to the implementation of the community quarantine.
SAP cash aid
Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development said only local government units able to fully distribute the first tranche of the Social Amelioration Program cash aid to beneficiaries could receive the budget for the second tranche.
Interviewed on Dobol B sa News TV, beamed nationwide, DSWD Secretary Rolando Joselito Bautista said the delay in distribution could drag the process in acquiring the fund for the second tranche.
The DSWD said 72.3 percent or over 13 million out of the 18 million beneficiaries already received the cash subsidy.
Initially, the deadline of the distribution was scheduled on April 30 but it extended to May 7.