CARAGA REGION MIGHT BE EXCLUDED FROM THE 2ND TRANCHE OF SOCIAL AMELIORATION PROGRAM (SAP)

BUTUAN CITY – In line with the directives embodied in the memorandum issued last May 22, the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) second tranche will be provided to the regions or family-beneficiaries still under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

According to the spokesperson of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Caraga Marko Davey Reyes, for now, the Caraga region has not yet received the guidelines or budget allocation for the second tranche of SAP from the central office. The main reason is that the region is currently under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

“Wala pa tay guidance from Central Office with regards to the second tranche since ang latest nga gipagawas nga impormasyon karon, only ECQ areas will be continuing with the second tranche sa SAP. Since Caraga is considered Modified General Community Quarantine, wala pa tay labot sa gi-consider nga magpadayun sa implementation sa SAP,” Reyes said.

(There’s still no guidance from the Central Office with regards to the second tranche since the latest released information now is that only the areas under ECQ will be continuing with the second tranche of SAP. Since Caraga is under Modified General Community Quarantine, we are not yet considered to continue the implementation of SAP.)

Despite the uncertainty of the second tranche SAP budget, DSWD Caraga is still hoping to receive assistance because there are still many who are gravely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

There are 107,000 families initially submitted to the central office to receive the 5,000 pesos cash assistance under the Social Amelioration Program. However, these are the family-beneficiaries who were not able to get their subsidy from the first tranche.

Reyes said that there is no fixed schedule yet as to when the SAP will be distributed to the 107,000 families because they still need to finalize the list of beneficiaries and double-check that none of them is receiving twice. DSWD Caraga has until June 15 to submit the final list of beneficiaries. Only then the budget for those qualified SAP beneficiaries who were not able to receive last April will be revealed.