The Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) will come with safety nets to filter and penalize fraudulent claims and ensure that politicians do not use it as a campaign tool for the 2025 midterm elections, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said in a statement on Sunday.
The agency explained that it is developing an improved standardized targeting system for AKAP beneficiaries in collaboration with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
“The soon-to-be crafted AKAP guidelines will also include items that will state outright that the program is insulated from politicking in line with the overarching mother guidelines of the DSWD, and on existing policies insulating all government programs from politics,” the agency said.
It added that penalties for fraudulent activities such as forging of documents and beneficiary list, instances of cutting of disbursed assistance will also be included in the guidelines.
“While the DSWD social workers had always practiced prudence in screening beneficiaries through intake forms, interviews, and comprehensive vetting of documents, the new form will particularly identify whether the client is indeed affected by the effects of inflation,” DSWD said quoting Sec. Rex Gatchalian.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) would monitor and evaluate the AKAP, adding that data from the Philippine Statistics Authority could be used to check the number of minimum-wage earners in a family.
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma, for his part, said his agency would provide information on potential beneficiaries, including the standard wage rates across the country.
Gatchalian, Balisacan and Laguesma met on January 3 to iron out the details of AKAP’s guidelines.
“Moving forward, we’ll try to clean everything up and incorporate by Wednesday next week. We’ll route it to you again, let us know if you are ready for signing or if you want more incorporation,” Gatchalian said.
The DSWD chief said the improved guidelines would help assuage apprehensions regarding AKAP and “ensure that only rightful beneficiaries” could avail of assistance under the program.
The guidelines are expected to include a ceiling on the number of household members that can avail of the AKAP aid to reduce chances of aid duplication.
It will also “include items that will state outright that the program is insulated from politicking in line with the overarching mother guidelines of the DSWD, and on existing policies insulating all government programs from politics.”
AKAP is intended to protect minimum wage earners and the near-poor from the effects of inflation, according to its proponents in Congress.
The program’s beneficiaries can receive between P2,000 to P10,000, with a holdout period of three months.
Critics of the program have pointed out that AKAP subsidies could be used to “buy” voters and have likened it to “pork barrel,” a discretionary fund for lawmakers that the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional.
