The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) almost finished the distribution of the cash aid under the social amelioration program (SAP) in the region, an official said Wednesday.
Ivan Eric Salvador, DSWD 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) information officer, said the agency has already distributed SAP benefits to 396,993 of the 405,185 identified family-beneficiaries, representing 98.46 percent completion.
Salvador said this translates to PHP1,984,965,000 disbursed out of the more than PHP2 billion allocated for the program in the region.
Each family-beneficiary received PHP5,000 to cushion the effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak.
The beneficiaries are the near-poor, poor, and those in the informal sector.
The DSWD-9, through different local government units, has begun distributing the SAP benefit in April and is set to finish this week.
Salvador said the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has given them until May 10 to complete the SAP payout.
He added that there is no directive yet on the release of the second tranche of the SAP benefit, meant to assist families severely affected by the current health crisis.
“We’ve been receiving messages of thanks and photos coming from the beneficiaries showing the food essentials they (bought using) the subsidy given to them by government,” Salvador said. (PNA)
