Last Monday’s hearing of the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare, and Rural Development clearly established that the agencies involved in the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) are not involved in the identification of its beneficiaries.
In grilling top officials of the Department of Labor and Employment, the National Economic and Development Authority, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, committee chair Sen. Imee Marcos got them to admit that their agencies do not have a list of people qualified to receive the benefit.
DOLE Undersecretary Benjo Benavidez and DSWD Undersecretary Aliah Dimaporo both admitted that the list of minimum wage earners qualified to receive AKAP is still non-existent.
All Usec. Dimaporo could say was that there are guidelines that will provide the requirements to avail of AKAP, which did not satisfy the senator.
The absence of such a list just indicates that the government is not aware of who the potential beneficiaries of AKAP are, Marcos pointed out.
It was also claimed during the hearing that DSWD field personnel are told to accept the list of AKAP beneficiaries recommended by congress member “no questions asked.”
Allegedly, the enhanced guidelines proposed by DSWD simplified the definition of its recipients to include “low-income and minimum-wage earners, especially those who were hit by inflation.
Just last month, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman was quoted as saying that under the new guidelines, beneficiaries do not need any intermediaries or endorsement from politicians to receive financial aid.
But in the same interview, she said that politicians can recommend certain individuals for the cash assistance, with the DSWD to verify their qualifications.
The more government officials explain how the AKAP guidelines will be implemented, the deeper they sink into the embarrassment having to kowtow to the whims of honorable members of Congress.
The budget secretary said that linking the PhilSys identification project to the AKAP program would enable the digital distribution of the dole-out.
But the problem remains that PhilSys or any other program of government do not have any list of low-income or minimum-wage earners, much less those affected by inflation.
Just last Sunday, in a pastoral letter read in all churches during Mass, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) scored as disturbing “the scandalous misuse of public funds and resources; the questionable insertions, cuts, and adjustments in the national budget; and the anti-poverty programs that promote a culture of patronage and mendicancy…”
Comelec Commissioner George Erwin Garcia’s proposal to ban AKAP distribution 10 days before the May 12, 2025 national and local elections as well as the DBM’s assurance that politicians will not be allowed to be present during the actual cash dole-out will not be enough.
It is doubtful that this would be taken sitting down by the present crop of House representatives, who will do everything to keep earning millions in commissions from being the real bosses of DPWH district engineering offices.
The people should take a page from the CBCP pastoral letter and hang a big sign at the entrance to the Batasang Pambansa complex: “Abandon hope all ye who enter here…”