Photo from: Mayor Vico Sotto’s Facebook page
Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto on Wednesday said that their local government will provide cash assistance to all families in the city and it will not be limited to low-income families only, according to a report on the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
However, the young mayor persuaded more fortunate families to refuse the cash aid and donate it instead.
Additionally, Sotto said that their supplemental program will include Pasig residents who are not covered by the national government’s social amelioration program (SAP).
He said that only 93,000 out of the 260,000 qualified families in Pasig were included in the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s list. Therefore, there are around 150,000 families in Pasig City who are not included in the list of beneficiaries for the national government SAP.
“Ang gagawin po natin sa Pasig, nakahanap po kami ng pondo. Over P1 billion po ‘yung na-identify natin na pondo para dagdagan po ‘yung tinatawag nating Pasig Suplemental Social Amelioration Program,” Sotto said in an interview on Unang Balita.
He said that this amount can be used to cover the additional 150,000 families. He said they could give around P8,000 per family but the amount will be finalized on Thursday.
He expressed gratitude to the financial assistance provided by the national government but he said that he can’t simply neglect other families in need of aid.
“‘Yung hindi po mabibigyan, yung wala po sa listahan ng 93,000 families sasaluhin po ng lokal na pamahalaan ng Pasig,” he said.
Sotto also explained that the budget coming from the national government has already been downloaded to the local government but distribution shall start once they get hold of the final list of beneficiaries vetted by the DSWD.
“Wala pa sa amin yung final approved list ng DSWD. Sabi nila ay noong Lunes o Martes kaso wala pa ho. As soon as we receive the final approved list we can start distribution,” the mayor said.
“Pakiusap naman natin sa mga local official, abonohan ninyo ‘yung kulang at saka natin singilin ‘yung DSWD. Katulong ninyo kami na maniningil diyan at kung ano ang pondong kailangan, kung kailangan kaming gumawang batas para diyan, gagawin namin,” he said.
Sotto said that the distribution of cash assistance will be door-to-door or in small clusters.
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