SWS survey: Pandemic aid in Metro Manila came mostly from LGUs

by Gabriel Pabico Lalu, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28 Jul 2020

MANILA, Philippines — Most Metro Manila families affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns cited their respective local government units (LGUs) as the top source of financial assistance, a recent survey has shown.

According to the Social Weather Stations (SWS), at least 85 percent of the respondents from the National Capital Region (NCR) said they received financial aid and 43 percent of them mentioned their respective LGUs as major sources of assistance.

Meanwhile, the number of families that got aid from the government, regardless of what agency provided it, was at 75 percent for Luzon, 65 percent for Mindanao, and 64 percent for the Visayas.

“On the other hand, families that did not receive any money-help from the government were 35% in the Visayas, 35% in Mindanao, 25% in Balance Luzon, and 15% in Metro Manila,” SWS also said in its report.

Further, SWS said the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the agency responsible for the distribution of the social amelioration program (SAP), was the most mentioned source of aid in Visayas and Mindanao.

The cash aid ranges from P5,000 to P8,000 depending on the prevailing minimum wage in the area.

LGUs providing additional aid aside from the national government subsidy would mean that certain residents would have received a larger sum of money compared to others.

It was also the case in Metro Manila, as SWS noted that respondent-families in the capital region received an average of P8,354, followed by those in Luzon (P6,701), Visayas (P5,988), and Mindanao (P5,441).

“Families in urban areas received an average of P7,118 (median P6,500), higher than the average P6,085 (median P5,500) received by families in rural areas,” SWS said.

After the government was forced to place Luzon, Metro Manila, and other areas under an enhanced community quarantine due to increasing coronavirus cases, work except for essential frontline services was suspended.

However, such suspensions have left those who rely on daily earnings and those whose jobs cannot shift to a work-from-home scheme without income through the lockdown.

Thus, the government pushed for the passage of Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act of 2020, which mandated the distribution of cash aid to lockdown-affected low-income families.

But until now, DSWD has yet to complete the distribution of cash aid to qualified beneficiaries.

SWS said it conducted the survey from July 3 to 6, with 1,555 adult Filipinos interviewed through mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI).

These were divided according to population projections for 2020, with 306 coming from NCR, followed by Balance Luzon (451), Visayas (388), and Mindanao (410). SWS says it maintains sampling error margins of ±2% for national percentages, ±6% for Metro Manila, and ±5 for Balance Luzon, ±5% for the Visayas, and ±5% for Mindanao.

KGA