FUND EXHAUSTED. A long line of hopefuls who wanted to avail of the assistance for students in crisis during the first payout held at the Iloilo Sports Complex on Aug. 20, 2022. The field office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Western Visayas announced Wednesday evening (Sept. 14, 2022) that they have no more funds for the particular program so there will be no payout on the last two Saturdays of September. (Photo courtesy of Iloilo City Public Safety and Transportation Management Office FB page)
ILOILO CITY – The last two scheduled payouts this September for the educational assistance in Western Visayas were canceled due to lack of funds, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development field office (DSWD-6) on Thursday.
Atty. May Rago-Castillo, DSWD information officer, said as much as they wanted to continue with the distributions scheduled on Sept. 17 and 24, there is no more funds left for the specific program as the PHP91 million budget was depleted.
“Based on our latest data, 36,131 students in crisis were released with educational assistance amounting to PHP101,326 million,” Castillo said in an interview.
From Aug. 20 until Sept. 7 when the online registration was halted, the regional office has received 591,744 applications.
Castillo added that they sourced an additional PHP10 million from the regular assistance to individuals in crisis situation funds to augment the aid.
“Our office has submitted a proposal to the DSWD central office but until now there is no additional fund,” Castillo said, however, she urged the public to watch out for any information that would be released by the department.
On Sept. 10, DSWD released PHP24.7 million for 8,851 recipients consisting of 2,034 elementary, 1,693 high school, 1,151 senior high school and 3, 973 college students in crisis.
As of Sept. 7, the department was able to cross-match an additional 16,000 who were supposed to undergo eligibility assessment.
The cross-matching was done to determine if they are members of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program who are ineligible to receive the aid. (PNA)
