DSWD welcome Año’s order to post list of beneficiaries

April 20, 2020

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Monday said they welcome the order of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año for  barangay officials to post the list of their target beneficiaries to see who received  the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) financial assistance.

“We thanked the DILG(Department of Interior and Local Government) for having this initiative to inform the public on who are the beneficiaries of our program. The DSWD and DILG has been advocating transparency on our programs,” said Social Welfare Undersecretary Camilo Gudmalin in a televised briefing.

Gudmalin said it’s only proper that the public will know who the beneficiaries are  to report to authorities whether the beneficiaries who received the assistance are qualified or not.

“We welcome this initiative coming from the DILG,” he said.

On Sunday, Año said it is very important to fully disclose the list of target SAP beneficiaries as this will promote honest, transparent, and orderly management of the SAP funds.

“We want the process of identifying the target beneficiaries under the SAP to be transparent.  Hence, we have directed all our punong barangays to post the masterlist of beneficiaries in strategic areas in their barangays so that the residents will also be informed if they will receive the financial assistance from the government,” he said.

The DILG chief said it is also important for the punong barangays to disclose the list of beneficiaries so  residents will be able to give them feedback if they think they should be in the list.

Año issued the statement after receiving reports from field offices on the lack of transparency in  distributing SAC forms and assistance to target beneficiaries.

LGUs can post the list of target SAP beneficiaries are the barangay hall, city or municipal hall, social center, gymnasium, auditorium, transport terminal, public market, health station or center, hospital, and other similar public places.

According to Gudmalin, they  distributed around P22 billion for 4.7 million beneficiaries and they also gave P74.5 billion fund to 1, 359 local government units.

“This is 90 percent of the total P81 billion that we distributed to regional offices,” he said.

The DSWD also distributed 445, 580 family food packs and around 134,000 senior citizens from Caraga and Cordillera region receive their P3,000 pension.

The DSWD official said they are coordinating with the proper agencies to assure the safety of their people after receiving reports that some social workers  distributing assistance to the people are being harassed.

“We are worried and saddened that some of the social workers are also victims of threat and harassment. We know the fear you are feeling… We hope this will not hinder for you to continuously help all the Filipinos. We are one with you in this fight, let’s show that goodness will defeat evil deeds,” he said.

Gudmalin also reminded the public to use  the cash assistance they received properly.

He added they are still on track with their target deadline to finish the distribution of cash assistance by the end of April.  Ella Dionisio/DMS