Beneficiaries of government cash assistance for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in Bacolod City will expect to receive a total of P1.3 billion in Social Amelioration Program (SAP) grants.
Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said he is optimistic that the infusion of public funds will pump-prime the city’s economy.
“This is a tremendous help to our people at a time when our economy is feeling the effects of this health crisis.”
“This is a tremendous help to our people at a time when our economy is feeling the effects of this health crisis. This will go a long, long way in helping needy families,” Leonardia said.
In Western Visayas, where Bacolod City is located, each recipient gets to receive P6,000 for two months or a total of P12,000.
Under the Emergency Subsidy Program (ESP), provided under the Bayanihan to Heal As One-Act, qualified beneficiaries from low-income households are given the cash aid being downloaded by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The DSWD, through the city’s Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD), recently started paying the second tranche of the SAP grant to recipients in Bacolod City.
Figures released by the Bacolod City government showed that the first tranche of the grant amounting to P588.9 million was distributed to 98,143 residents.
The second tranche of P583.6 million will benefit 97,266 city residents.
Some P188.5 million will go to the 15,713 recipients who were listed as “left out” or those who did not avail of the first tranche. Each of them will receive P12,000, which is equivalent to two months.
“Majority of the residents of Bacolod will benefit from the government’s subsidy program.”
Leonardia said that with more than 113,000 family-beneficiaries in Bacolod City, a majority of its more than half a million residents will benefit from the government’s subsidy program.
Bacolod City is one of the few cities granted the second tranche of the SAP assistance among the 146 cities nationwide.
This was after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) approved the city’s request for an extension of the enhanced community quarantine status for 15 days from April 30 to May 15, 2020.
Leonardia, who is the national president of the League of Cities of the Philippines and a member of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council, thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for the approval of the second tranche release of the SAP assistance for Bacolod City.