Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Thursday warned that recipients who misused the financial subsidy given by the government—such as using it to buy drugs or to gamble–would be disqualified from receiving further financial help from the state.
The government has given financial subsidy to families and individuals classified as low-income earners to help them buy their essentials such as food and medicine since they are unable to work because of the lockdown imposed by government to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
READ: 85% of PH families to get subsidies
“The cash assistance given by the government to households in dire need may be viewed as a donation subject to a condition; i.e., the condition that the cash assistance should be used to buy food and other essentials to tide the recipient over during the calamity,” Guevarra said, in a text message.
“When the recipient violates this condition and spends the money for something else, or worse, for something illegal, the donation is forfeited and he becomes morally obligated to return the money given. In addition, he makes himself ineligible to receive any further act of generosity from the giver,” he added.
Aside from being ineligible from receiving further subsidy, these individuals might also face criminal liability such as violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, depending on the offense they committed.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Thursday urged local government units to implement best practices in distributing cash aid to families affected by the Enhanced Community Quarantine.
Año said he still prefers the house-to-house distribution of cash assistance to ensure that people will not leave their homes.
However, if LGUs decide to set up distribution points, marked chairs can be used to ensure that physical distancing is strictly implemented.
“Even if there is no ECQ for the rest of the year, while there is no vaccine, this will be our new life,” Año said in a radio interview.
He said LGUs are continuously monitored.
Año also asked LGUs to allow the passage of vehicles ferrying returning overseas Filipino workers on their way to designated quarantine areas.
Residents or LGUs must not block them because the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases had earlier issued a resolution stating that the passage of overseas workers must be unhampered, Año said.
Some OFWs from three countries were prevented from going to their designated quarantine facilities in Batangas.
A lawmaker, meanwhile, said minimum wage earners who have been prevented from working due to the government campaign to stem the spread of COVID-19 should be given at least P10,000 a month as subsidy to tide them over the ECQ period.
Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite made the statement in support of the call of labor groups for a P10,000 monthly wage subsidy for all minimum wage earners.
READ: DOLE halts workers’ subsidy; Finance starts its aid program
At the same time, Gaite assailed the government’s snail-paced distribution of cash and other assistance to workers.
“The Department of Labor and Employment’s social amelioration program has a small number of beneficiaries and yet the distribution of cash aid has not been fully implemented even as we enter the sixth week of the lockdown,” Gaite said.
He added: “According to the President’s report the disbursal rate of DOLE’s SAPs is currently only at 73 percent for the COVID-19 Adjustment Measure Program or CAMP, 67 percent for Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers or TUPAD, and 63 percent for DOLE-AKAP for OFWs.”
“While we appreciate DOLE’s efforts to fulfill its obligation to assist our workers, the programs that are being implemented remain lacking. The National Economic and Development Authority estimates the number of displaced workers at 1.8 million, the Labor department pegs it at 1.5 million, while labor groups put the number between 2.5 million to 4 million. Whichever data is exact, DOLE’s target of 693,644 beneficiaries is way below any of the estimates. Too few have been given assistance,” Gaite said
Senator Panfilo Lacson, meanwhile, said the marginalized and those targeted for financial assistance because of COVID-19 should be given priority in the implementation of the National ID system.
The national ID system, which was signed into law nearly two years ago, could have been used to providehelp to the poor who are hardest hit by the lockdown, Lacson said.
Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III filed a resolution seeking to investigate the delay in the national ID system, which can be used to hasten the effective distribution of aid to poor families.