DAVAO CITY — Not only a dozen but over a hundred Barangay Captains all over the country violated the law when they include their children, wife, their relatives and relatives of their wives in the list of indigent individuals to received the P6,000 government support under the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) distributed by the Department of Social Services and Development (DSWD).
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año during the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) which was aired on national television, told President Rodrigo Duterte.
“One hundred fifty-five barangay captains and officials na po ‘yung aming iniimbestigahan at ang 30 ay nai-refer na namin sa Ombudsman (One hundred fifty-five barangay captains and officials have been investigated and 30 cases have been referred to the Ombudsman),” Año said.
Aggrieved citizens, according to Año, started to talk about the abuses after the DILG ordered the Barangay Captains to post the list of the beneficiaries at the Barangay Halls for the people to know who were the recipients, and it uncovered the list which reflected the names of the relatives, sibling of the barangay captains who by law, do not deserve the cash assistance.
“So lahat po ito ay kakasuhan namin sapagkat labag po sa batas ‘yung kanilang ginawa (So, all of them will be charged because what they did was against the law),” he added.
To this, Duterte said, “However you look at, it’s still malversation”.
Danilo Caryon, 56, jobless, a resident of Davao City’s first district told Newsline, his purok (sub-village) leader did not enlist him but instead listed an owner of a veterinary supply who happens to be his ‘Kumpare’.
“Wala ko niya gilista kay puno na daw, pero iyang gibutang si Danny, iyang kumpare nga taga-iya og tindahan sa feeds (He did not enlist me because the list is full, but he listed Danny, his kumpare who owns a store selling feeds),” Caryon revealed.
According to Año, their investigation is still ongoing and the number of violators kept increasing.
The first tranche of the SAP distribution is almost complete, almost 99 percent have been distributed while the DSWD is preparing the second trance, Año added.
The priority of the second tranche is the five million (5-million) individuals based on the last report, 4,094,311 names submitted by the LGU’s.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police will distribute the assistance while others will be downloaded through Automated Teller Machine (ATM).
The distribution of the second tranche of the social amelioration program (SAP) will soon start as 944 local government units (LGUs) have liquidated the first tranche, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said on Thursday.-Editha Z. Caduaya
