Mayor Jerry Treñas has asked President Rodrigo Duterte to include poor families in Iloilo City as beneficiaries of the second tranche of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
In a letter he wrote to Duterte, the mayor said “many of [the city’s residents] are still in need of any form of assistance to alleviate their plight.”
“Nakit-an ta nga maskin dula-on pa ni ang quarantine, damo gihapon ang wala trabaho,” Treñas told reporters during a press conference on Friday, May 22.
The city’s quarantine status was downgraded to general community quarantine (GCQ) from enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Despite the downgrading, Treñas said “the grim effects of the [two-month] lockdown remain.”
The lockdown, according to the mayor, “caused difficulty in terms of jobs, livelihood, and incomes.”
“Stringent heath containment measures led to some establishments withon the city to cease operations or close down, leaving many of pur urban poor and vulnerable households without a way to make a living,” Trenas said.
“Our senior citizens and persons with disability (PWDs) are more challenged by these times due to their fraility and limits, With our vulnerable sector’s finances significantly reduced, if not wiped out, they can only rely on assistance as that provided by SAP,” he further said.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) earlier announced that the government will only release the second tranche of the emergency subsidy in areas that are still under ECQ and modified ECQ.IMT
