AID FOR SACADAS. Sugar migrants arrive in Antique pass by a checkpoint in the municipality of Hamtic in this photo taken in May. More than 300 of them will receive Aid to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) from June 4 and 5. (Photo courtesy of Antique PDRRMO)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Antique’s 323 sugar migrants, locally known as sacada, will receive PHP3,000 each under the Aid to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS), a provincial official said on Thursday.
In an interview, Randy Ardeño, in-charge of the provincial government’s sacada desk, said the AICS will be released to qualified recipients in the municipality of Culasi on June 4 and in Tibiao on June 5.
He said the distribution will be led by the Antique office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) at the municipal covered courts of Culasi and Tibiao.
He said that the provision of AICS was requested by Antique Rep. Loren Legarda and Governor Rhodora Cadiao for sacadas who did not receive a cash grant from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) or the social amelioration program (SAP).
“Through the AICS, the sacadas could be financially assisted as they are already going home after their 14-day quarantine,” he said.
The sacadas were considered as locally stranded individuals (LSIs) working in the sugar fields of Negros Occidental.
They were allowed to go home in batches from May 18 to 29 after Antique was placed under the general community quarantine.
Upon their arrival in the province, they were required to undergo the 14-day quarantine at the isolation facilities in their municipalities before they were allowed to return to their families as a preventive measure against the spread of Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19).
Based on the data of the PPDO a total of 1,625 sacadas came home to Antique under the Oplan Exodus of the provincial government from May 19 to 29.
“The other sacadas who qualified as recipients of AICS will also have their schedules of distribution later,” Ardeño said. (PNA)
