Photo Release

Poor planning, outdated beneficiaries’ list lead to SAP troubles: Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson says poor planning and a list of beneficiaries based on the 2015 census of the Philippine Statistics Authority contributed to the troubles in the distribution of the cash assistance under the Special Amelioration Program (SAP). During a virtual hearing of Finance Subcommittee I on the proposed 2022 budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Monday, October 11, 2021, Lacson pointed to the fact that DSWD has already engaged the services of financial service providers before learning that 70 percent of beneficiaries have no mobile phones or have defective mobile phones and are unable to receive cash assistance through digital distribution. He also added that local government officials had difficulty distributing the first tranche of SAP because of the outdated list of beneficiaries, which came from DSWD central office. “Anyway, as we say in the military, lesson learned in combat. Next time let us first properly plan before we engage service providers so that we won’t have problems in the implementation,” Lacson said. (Screen grab/ Senate PRIB)