The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) guaranteed to the public its commitment to give “unimpeded public service” after a total of 434 of its personnel nationwide tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Among the reported cases, 123 are confirmed with 74 active cases, while the remaining numbers are undergoing quarantine. They were given personal protective equipment, financial and medical assistance, food packs, and psychosocial services based on needs.
The DSWD is in charge of the implementation of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) which distributes emergency cash subsidies to low income families to help them recover from the effects of the pandemic.
Known as SAP frontliners, DSWD personnel faced threats that may affect their health and well-being just to provide cash subsidies during manual payouts in big venues as well as in hard-to-reach areas.
The agency said it is close to completing the payouts for the second tranche of the SAP as it already reached some 11.26 million family beneficiaries worth PHP73 billion of financial aid.
The DSWD added that it only needs to deliver around PHP2.84 billion more of the emergency subsidy after their newly announced number of target beneficiaries, which is 14.1 million. RJ Espartinez