House seeks ‘better way’ of SAP aid distribution — Cayetano

The House of Representatives wants a better, smoother system of distributing financial aid under the government’s social amelioration program (SAP), House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said on Friday..

This is the objective of Monday’s House inquiry into the distribution by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other agencies of P100 billion in SAP aid last month, he told reporters.

The committee on good government and public accountability chaired by Bulacan Rep. Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado and the committee on public accounts led by Rep. Mike Defensor of Anakalusugan will conduct the inquiry starting on Monday.

“This is not to point fingers, but to find a better way of delivering the social amelioration and other benefits to our people,” Cayetano said.

“People are tired of hearing statements like ‘The national ID should have been fully implemented for faster aid distribution,’ or ‘The SAC (social amelioration card) forms should have been distributed house-to-house’,” he said.

He said the House wants to hear from the DSWD “what their plans are, if, God forbids, a lockdown is imposed again, if they can distribute aid efficiently.”

The Speaker added that he saw some SAP implementers texting people and asking if they were qualified to received aid.

“But that was the intention in giving the SAC forms house-to-house, isn’t it? So, all of these issues have to be ventilated in the inquiry for the purpose of coming up with a better system,” he stressed.

He recalled that before Congress approved the Bayanihan Law last March 23, agencies promised to distribute the first tranche of P100 billion “in 10 days.”

“But what happened? The distribution for April was finished in May. They told us that P200 billion was needed to help 18 million poor and near-poor families: P100 billion for April and P100 billion for May,” Cayetano said.

He reminded officials of President Duterte’s mantra: “Don’t let the people wait, deliver service promptly.”

“He always tells us: no red tape, no corruption,” he said.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)