Palace orders IATF to include 5M more families for cash aid payout

Malacañang on Saturday ordered the inter-agency task force at the helm of the COVID-19 response to include an additional five million households as recipients of the emergency cash aid from the government.

In a memorandum issued Saturday, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is instructed to “include the additional five million eligible households” for the second tranche of the Social Amelioration Program.

Malacañang issues memorandum on the inclusion of additional 5 million households as beneficiaries of the emergency subsidy program and the reconfiguration of the budget for the second tranche. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/Fv37i732s4

— Virgil Lopez (@virgillopez) May 23, 2020

The five million eligible households will be added to the 12 million beneficiaries under the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Likewise, the memo highlighted that “while it is only natural that most beneficiaries would come from those still living in Enhanced Community Quarantine areas, as stricter kinds of community quarantine deprive more people of means of support, household beneficiaries most affected by the continuing restrictions in the operation of certain industries and sectors in areas under the General Community Quarantine may still be considered for the Second Tranche.”

Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (Republic Act 11469), around 18 million low-income households and those in the informal sector were targeted to receive monthly cash subsidies amounting to P5,000 to P8,000 for two months.

President Rodrigo Duterte later approved the recommendation of the government’s COVID-19 task force to add five million more families to the list of beneficiaries.

According to the government, the five million additional families include those who were initially left out of the list of beneficiaries of the DSWD and the LGUs.

Moreover, the IATF was  instructed to retain the original numbers and budget for the first tranche of SAP.

The DWSD, together with the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the National Privacy Commission, are directed to expedite the creation of the online portal containing the list of eligible household beneficiaries of the emergency cash assistance.

The memorandum, dated May 22, 2020, was signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea. —LBG/KG, GMA News