Sadanga officials return P1.47M excess SAP funds

SADANGA, Mountain Province -- The municipal government has returned  P1.47million  excess  funds of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) that was downloaded  by the  Department of  Social Welfare and Development as emergency cash assistance for low income families during the enhanced community quarantine.

DSWD – Cordillera Regional Director Leo Quintilla, in the joint coordination meeting of the Cordillera Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and the Regional Inter – Agency Task Group (RIATG) COVID – 19 on  Wednesday,  reported that Sadanga returned P1, 474,000 undisbursed  funds with the reason that there are no more qualified   families in the municipality under the program guidelines.  

DSWD – CAR downloaded funds for 1,400 target family beneficiaries, however for the actual payout, there are only 1,132 qualified beneficiaries provided with the SAP cash assistance.

Quintilla said Sadanga is the first local government unit among those that have already competed their payout in the region   that has returned  unutilized SAP funds. Other LGUs that are also set to refund  undisbursed  amount are  Barlig and Besao in Mountain Province; Bucloc and Daguiman in Abra; Tanudan and Tinglayan of Kalinga, and  Mayoyao in Ifugao.  

It can be recalled that Sadanga is also the only LGU in CAR that waived the family food packs that DSWD has provided to municipalities in this COVID-19 crisis, in favour of the more needy areas, showing how united and resilient the people are in the area.

As of May 6 data of DSWD – CAR, Quintilla  reported  that SAP payout in CAR reached 91.11 percent with 270,850 out of the 297,289 target family beneficiaries  already receiving  their cash assistance. Total disbursement is around P1.41 billion.

67 out of the 75 municipalities and two cities in the region already accomplished 100 percent SAP payout.

For Baguio, the city government waived some of its SAP funds, downgrading its target family beneficiaries from 50,237 to 45,000.

Quintilla shared that SAP payout in Cordillera is the third highest accomplishment among regions in the country.  With several LGUs having excess funds, the payout will end at less than 100 percent by the May 7 deadline set by the Department of Interior and Local Government, he said.  (JDP/CCD-PIA CAR)