No matter how difficult, they had to abide. Despite the time constraint, they needed to act fast for their constituents.

This was how Barangay Captain Marcelino Trinidad of Barangay West Crame, San Juan City in the National Capital Region, described the preparations they underwent for the implementation of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) in their community .

SAP is the provision of emergency subsidy amounting to P5,000 to P8,000, based on the regional minimum wage rate, to low income families assessed to be most affected by the nationwide community quarantine. It aims to mitigate the effects of economic shocks
brought about by the disruption of livelihood of poor families.

As soon as Brgy Capt. Trinidad received the allocation for his barangay, first question that came to his mind, was on what happens to those who will not be counted in?

“Dito sa barangay namin, merong mahigit na 6,000 na mahihirap na pamilya, base yan sa bilang namin noong namigay kami ng relief goods. Marami kasi dito sa amin ang nangungupahan. Magugulat ka na sa isang bahay, may dalawa o tatlong pamilya na naninirahan” (Here in our village, there are over 6,000 poor families, based on our recent count when we distributed relief goods. Many of them are
tenants here. You will be surprised in one house, there are two or three families living there), Brgy. Capt Trinidad said.

Good thing that the barangay has its own data base of its residents. The database includes profile of the family and ranking based on the family’s income. With a database in place, he immediately convened the Sangguniang Barangay and invited sectoral representatives to seat as part of the selection committee. Brgy. Capt. Trinidad made sure that all sectors were represented in the Sanggunian.

While waiting for the forms, they came up with their own form as part of the barangay’s initial validation of their database since this was last updated in 2018.

Yung form na sinagutan ng mga pamilya ang naging basehan namin, kasama ng ibang sectoral representative, upang ma-identify sino ang uunahin at sino yung mga tinatawag natin na second hanggang third priority” (The forms that the families filled-out served as our basis, along with other sectoral representatives, to identify who will we be prioritized and who will come in as second and third priority), Brgy. Capt. Trinidad added.

As soon as the SAP forms were already available, each barangay council was assigned to a specific road to facilitate the filling-out of forms. They have also used the barangay Facebook (FB) page to announce the schedule of families to fill-out and submit theSAP forms.

The FB page also served as a grievance platform. Brgy. Capt. Trinidad made sure that concerns raised were immediately responded to. He encouraged the residents of the barangay to follow the FB page as all announcements and updates were posted there. The potential list of beneficiaries was also posted on the page for transparency.

Dahil mas marami ang mahihirap sa amin kesa sa bilang ng makakasama sa SAP, tiniyak natin na transparent ang process at maunang mabigyan yung mga talagang mas nangangailangan. Konti man sila kumpara sa bilang ng mahihirap sa amin, malaking tulong pa din ito na magagamit ng mahihirap na pamilya” (As we have more poor than the number included in the SAP list, we have to make sure that the process is transparent and the aid to be given to those who really need it the most. The beneficiaries might be few as compared to the number of poor families in our area but the aid is still a great help to them), concluded Brgy. Capt. Trinidad.

As of May 26, a total of 1,482 LGUs have already completed the distribution of SAP in their own localities. More than P99 billion has been distributed to 17.53 million low-income families nationwide.

DSWD will continue to closely monitor the release of emergency subsidies and to augment the resources of local government units (LGUs) as they continue to respond to the needs of their constituents during this health crisis. ###