DBM releases P10.89B for ECQ aid to 10.9M people in NCR
MANILA, Philippines—Nearly 11 million Metro Manila residents being locked down for 15 days starting on Friday (Aug. 6) will receive some cash after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released P10.89 billion from government savings for the purpose.
“Affected low-income individuals and families are expected to receive P1,000 per person and a maximum of P4,000 per household, to ensure that food and other non-food requirements are met despite the imposed lockdown,” the DBM said in a statement Friday.
“The cash aid shall benefit 10.9 million individuals or the bottom 80 percent of the population in Metro Manila, based on the population projection and available data of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA),” the DBM said.
While Metro Manila’s local governments units (LGUs)—16 cities and one municipality—will distribute the dole outs, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), both headed by retired military generals, would supervise and monitor the aid distribution, the DBM said in a circular issued on Friday to guide aid distribution.
This circular was signed by Budget Undersecretary Tina Rose Marie Canda on behalf of Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, who’s currently in the midst of a two-week medical leave.
“The LGUs shall determine the most efficient and effective way of release of assistance. Likewise, the financial assistance shall not be used for any other unauthorized programs, projects, activities, and expenses,” the DBM said.
Quezon City will receive the biggest allocation of P2.37 billion, followed by Manila (P1.49 billion), and Caloocan City (P1.34 billion).
The other LGUs who are getting shares from the aid pie are:
- Las Piñas City, P488.02M
- Makati City, P511.98M
- Malabon City, P307M
- Mandaluyong City, P347.65M
- Marikina City, P365.75M
- Muntinlupa City, P441.61M
- Navotas City, P197.71M
- Parañaque City, P556.15M
- Pasay City, P356.73M
- Pasig City, P650.89M
- Pateros, P52.42M
- San Juan, P101.79M
- Taguig City, P723.97M
- Valenzuela City, P589.31M
The P10.89-billion special allotment release order (Saro) that the DBM approved and released to the Department of Finance’s (DOF) Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on Friday specified that the amount will “cover the funding requirements for the provision of assistance to low-income population of various LGUs in the National Capital Region (NCR)” during the fourth iteration of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the most stringent form of lockdown, from Aug. 6-20.
The Saro document said these funds were sourced from government savings under Administrative Order (AO) No. 41 issued by President Rodrigo Duterte last May.
In a text message, Budget Undersecretary Rolando Toledo said a total of P13.13 billion in the national government’s savings were generated through AO 41.
AO 41 mandated agencies to identify items already released in their continuing 2020 budgets which had not been intended for COVID-19 response but were unobligated as of May 15 this year.
Unobligated appropriations meant contracts to implement the programs, activities and projects were not yet awarded, hence the money set aside was still unspent. Duterte had extended the validity of the P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget until end-2021.
The DBM circular said the cash aid “shall be released directly by the BTr to the beneficiary LGUs, through authorized government servicing banks.”
In separate reports also on Friday, the latest DBM data showed that it already released P3.88 trillion, or 86 percent, of the record P4.51-trillion 2021 budget as of end-July, a slower pace of releasing money to departments and agencies than the 94 percent, or P3.86 trillion of the albeit smaller P4.1-trillion 2020 appropriations, during the first seven months of 2020.
Also, updated DBM data showed that P9.79 billion out of the P25.14-billion combined national disaster risk reduction management fund (NDRRMF) or more popularly known as “calamity fund” from 2020 and the 2021 budgets were already released as of July. The Inquirer earlier reported that these calamity funds were unreleased, hence unspent during the first quarter of 2021 despite the prolonged fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
