「日刊まにら新聞」ウェブ

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Erwin Tulfo will seek the help of the local and provincial government in distributing educational assistance for indigent students following the big influx of beneficiaries during the first day of payout on Saturday.

Police said there were around 1,000 lining up for the aid at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) at Batasan Complex. Some slept near the building Friday night to be among the first in the queue.

But pictures from a radio station gave the impression of angry people who failed to meet the day's cutoff of 2,000 recipients.

"Please be patient. We are trying to do our best. We are making recalibration, we are adjusting, we might adjust maybe next weekend. What we are going to do is we will ask for help. We will bring this to the municipalities not in the barangay with the supervision of the DSWD ( Department of Social Welfare and Development) personnel we have here and in the municipality. I guess that is what we have to do," he said in an interview with reporters in Quezon City.

"I will have to talk to the LGUs, meet with my field offices, regional directors and provincial directors. Tonight I will be getting their feedback on what went wrong because there are regions that did not experience any problem like in Cordillera Administrative Region that was hit by earthquake but the people are orderly, also Region 1, while problems were also monitored in Region 2 and Region 4A," he added.

Tulfo said as early as 7 am he declared a cut off for the beneficiaries that will be accommodated during the first day of payout at the central office of DSWD.

"Those who are in the line at 7 am will be accommodated today, but I am not promising that we can give the educational assistance today. It could be on Monday or Tuesday but we will give it to you. We will accommodate you today either we will give you a form or we will ask you to return on Monday or Tuesday...that is what we are going to do," he said.

Tulfo said DSWD is adjusting the distribution of the educational assistance as he admitted that there was a miscommunication with the walk-in applicant that became unruly while waiting in their line.

"What happen is there was a miscommunication down the line, when I was informed (that) secretary , we are now OK with walk in. Right now, we are calibrating every minute like the adoption of the system made by Region 4A. Earlier, they are overwhelmed but the people calmed down after they distributed the forms and they give them schedules on when they could get their cash assistance," he said. Robina Asido/DMS