The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) welcomes the announcement of Secretary Harry Roque yesterday, 25 May 2020, stating that the government may start distributing the 2^nd tranche of subsidy under the different social amelioration programs (SAP) of the national government, namely: 1) Rice Farmers Financing Assistance (RFFA) under the Department of Agriculture; 2) Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) of the Department of Finance through the Social Security System; 3) Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers Barangay Ko, Bahay Ko Disinfections/Sanitation Project (TUPAD #BKBK) of the Department of Labor and Employment; and 4) Emergency Subsidy Program (ESP) through AICS of the DSWD, intended for the poor and informal sectors of society that are mostly affected by quarantine restrictions.

The DSWD appeals to the Local Government Units (LGUs) to kindly expedite the encoding and transmittal of their complete liquidation reports to our Field Offices (FOs). The liquidation report is vital in the process of validation as it includes the report of the disbursement (containing the photos of the recipients, Social Amelioration Card Forms, and amount of cash received); Report of Checks Issued and Report of Disbursements certified by the LGU accountant and approved by the Local Chief Executive; and a copy of the Official Receipt for the refund/return of unutilized SAP funds.

Validation and vetting by the FOs can only be done when the data per LGU have been submitted in its entirety, which will take approximately 15 days since validation on a city/municipality, provincial, and regional level takes place at the FO levels. Thereafter, it shall be forwarded to the DSWD Central Office for cross-matching and duplication with the other government agencies’ lists of beneficiaries to avoid duplicity and ineligibility. This will take another seven days in order to assure the people that the recipients are the poor families of society who need the SAP.

The DSWD is exhausting all means to shorten the vetting and validation process, however, we need the full cooperation of the LGUs in order to effect this.

DSWD expresses its gratitude to the Senate, the House of Representatives, the LGUs, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, and all stakeholders who are one with us in working for a speedy distribution of the SAP 2^nd tranche implementation.

We thank the nation for their patience and understanding during this time of COVID-19 pandemic. ###