P13.1-B allocated for ayuda during ECQ

Pres. Duterte has approved the distribution of cash aid, amounting to P13.1 billion, to those affected by the reimposition of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said 10.1 million qualified beneficiaries in the metropolis stand to benefit from the financial assistance during the August 6 to 20 lockdown.

Each qualified resident will get P1,000. A maximum of 4 beneficiaries per household can get the cash aid.

Roque explained the P2.4-billion excess fund for the cash aid will serve as a “contingency budget” of the government in case it needs to give assistance to people not included in its initial target number of beneficiaries.

He said the fund will be sourced from unobligated funds of government agencies as well as windfall revenue collected by the Bureau of the Treasury.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos said the list of beneficiaries will come from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

MMDA is eyeing face-to-face cash aid distribution to ensure it will be promptly received by its intended beneficiaries instead of digital payments previously used by DSWD.

DSWD spokesman Irene Dumlao said they respect the MMDA’s recommendation to make use of face-to-face distribution over their digital payment scheme.

“We have seen that this mechanism worked during the distribution of ECQ ayuda in NCR+ several months ago,” Dumlao said.

Dumlao acknowledged the challenges in their digital payment system, “including  lacking information from beneficiaries and some beneficiaries do not have smartphones.”

She countered that people who successfully received their cash aid via online payments “reported high or very high satisfaction levels on the use of digital disbursements.”