‘TIGHTER’ AKAP
THREE government agencies agreed to refine the policies and to properly assess the eligibility of the Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) beneficiaries.
The agencies include the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Respective heads, Secretary Rex Gatchalian of DSWD, Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma of DOLE, and Secretary Arsenio Balicasan of NEDA already met before the week-end ends in order to discuss the AKAP policies.
The three Cabinet members convened in line with the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr that calls for the crafting of new guidelines for the conditional implementation of AKAP for the year 2025.
According to Gatchalian, the drafting of a new intake form will heed President Marcos’ line item veto message on AKAP that “intends to address the significant strain of inflation to the financial capacity of those who earn less than minimum wage.”
“In case of the social welfare intake, lalabas doon if affected nga ba ng effects ng inflation ang pagtaas ng bilihin yung client,” Gatchalian said as he laid plans on the streamlining of information gathering for eligible clients.
While the DSWD social workers had always practiced prudence in screening beneficiaries through intake forms, interviews, and comprehensive vetting of documents, the new form will particularly identify whether the client is indeed affected by the effects of inflation.
The NEDA and DOLE chiefs agreed with the concept, adding that it will help pacify pertinent public concern and ensure that only rightful beneficiaries avail of assistance under the AKAP.
Among the agreed salient provisions on the guidelines was putting a ceiling on the number of household-members that can avail of the AKAP to minimize instances of duplication of aid.
The soon-to-be crafted AKAP guidelines will also include items that will state outright that the program is insulated from politicking in line with the overarching mother guidelines of the DSWD, and on existing policies insulating all government programs from politics.
The consequences of fraudulent activities such as forging of documents and beneficiary list, instances of cutting of disbursed assistance will also be included in the guidelines.
As the government officials agreed to retain the provision of referrals for potential AKAP beneficiaries, Secretary Gatchalian affirmed that referred clients and their documents are still subject to the social workers’ assessment and the agency’s stringent vetting process.
Secretary Balisacan pointed out that the monitoring and evaluation mechanism will be the NEDA’s primary role in the implementation of the AKAP. NEDA’s attached agency – the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), also stands ready to provide all the needed information.
The PSA data can be used to check how many are working in the family, and of those number, who are the minimum wage earners, according to the NEDA chief.
For his part, Laguesma said the DOLE will provide information on potential beneficiaries, including the standard wage rate across the country to give way into a more standardized and seamless sharing of reference data.
“We will help with the information through the region, sa kanilang regional wages and productivity,” Laguesma said.
At the end of the meeting, Secretary Gatchalian vowed to furnish the new guidelines and intake form as soon as possible.
“Moving forward, we’ll try to clean everything up and incorporate by Wednesday next week. We’ll route it to you again, let us know if ready for signing or you want more incorporation,” the DSWD chief told his two fellow Cabinet members.
Also joining the meeting were DSWD Undersecretaries Adonis Sulit and Monina Josefina Romualdez; NEDA Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon; and PSA Undersecretary Claire Dennis Mapa.
