Data Analysis

As discussed in the previous section of this paper, policy making process can be
looked as a cycle or series of political activities that can be divided into five different
stages, namely: (1) agenda setting, (2) policy formulation, (3) policy legitimation, (4)
policy implementation, and (5) policy evaluation. This section looks into the Philippine
government’s policy in the distribution and identification of beneficiaries of the
emergency subsidy program.

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Figure 2. The policymaking process for emergency subsidy distribution

 After confirming local transmission of COVID-19 and with the increasing number
of positive cases in the country, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of
Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) per Resolution No. 11, Series of 2020, raised
the COVID-19 threat to the highest alert level, Code Red Sublevel 2. This has further
prompted the Philippine government to declare community quarantine in the National
Capital Region (NCR) on 15 March 2020; and on 17 March 2020 the recommendation
to declare an Enhanced Community Quarantine in the entirety of Luzon.
The imposition of community quarantine in the entire Luzon came with stringent
social distancing measures, implementation of alternative working arrangements in both
the public and private offices, suspension of mass transport and operations of business
establishments and strict implementation of curfew hours. However, despite this, there
are still some Filipinos, compelled to not comply with the quarantine protocols for
economic survival. This has prompted the government to establish social amelioration
measures and allocate funding to help the low income households and other vulnerable
groups.
To cover for the loss of income due
to disruptions in work and livelihood during
the quarantine period and to ensure that people
comply with the stay-at-home health protocol, the
government had to provide nancial assistance
to low-income families and other vulnerable
groups with little or no savings to tap during the
enhanced community quarantine (ECQ)
To cover for the loss of income due
to disruptions in work and livelihood during
the quarantine period and to ensure that people
comply with the stay-at-home health protocol, the
government had to provide nancial assistance
to low-income families and other vulnerable
groups with little or no savings to tap during the
enhanced community quarantine (ECQ)
In view of the serious health threats and disruption posed by COVID-19 in the
lives and livelihoods of people and the economy as a whole, the government realized
the urgent need put up measures to sustain the economy and its people. To address
this, the Senate and the Congress passed an identical bill and enrolled it for signature of
the President. Normally both chambers pass their own versions and then hold a
bicameral conference to reconcile conflicting provisions, but this time, the House agreed
to adopt the 10-page Sp0enate Bill 1418 instead of its own House Bill 6616, to speed up
the legislative mill. Unlike any other legislations, the President has urgently approved
the bill in order to cope with the health crisis. Thus, the government passed into law the
Republic Act 11469 also known as the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act on 23 March
2020.
The law authorizes the President to exercise the necessary special powers, for a
limited time and subject to certain restrictions, to address a problem that poses a clear
and present danger to the people. Granting of temporary emergency powers of the
President are constitutional when obtained by legislative enactment specifically to allow
the Executive Branch of government to better address a particular threat facing the
country and its people by means of a declared national policy. The 1987 Constitution
provides that:
“In times of war or other national emergencies, the Congress may, by
law, authorize the President, for a limited period and subject to such
restrictions as it may prescribe, to exercise powers necessary and
proper to carry out a declared national policy. (Article VI Section 23)”
One of the salient points of the act is the authority given to the President to
provide a social amelioration package to those who are suffering the most from the
enhanced community quarantine especially the poor and those with barely any
resources or savings to draw from. The government allocated P199.975 billion to the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to fund the initiative.
To ensure proper implementation of the initiative, implementing agencies had to
come up with policy guidelines in the identification of the target beneficiaries. This
paved way to the issuance of a Joint Memorandum Circular No. 1, series of 2020 by the
DSWD, DOLE, DTI, DA, DOF, DBM, and DILG. This has been further backed by series
of circulars from the DSWD which were later on consolidated to Memorandum Circular
No 9. Series of 2020.
The JMC No 1, series of 2020 laid out the guidelines in the implementation of the
social amelioration program of the government. Further, the JMC provided an
operational framework to aid the implementing agencies in streamlining and
harmonizing its various social services in accordance to the Bayanihan law.
 Figure 1. The Social Amelioration Framework (JMC 1, s. 2020)

The Social Amelioration Framework emphasizes the need for a whole-of-nation

approach in addressing food security and livelihood concerns during the pandemic. The
framework serves as a guide since the emergency subsidy shall be provided by the
national government, through various National and Local Government social
amelioration programs, computed based on the prevailing regional minimum wage
rates, and taking into account the subsidy amount given under the DSWD’s Conditional
Cash Transfer (CCT) program and the rice subsidy program, estimated at an average of
Php 2,150.00 per month per family. Thus, in order to reach the applicable emergency
subsidy amount, the national government augmented the CCT and rice subsidy.

Policy Related Features

DSWD MC. 4, Series of 2020.Special i. DSWD-wide emergency program

Guidelines on the Provision of Social
Amelioration Measures by the
Department of Social Welfare and
Development to the Most Affected Areas
under Community Quarantine and
Continuation of the Social Pension for
Indigent Senior Citizens and
subsidy through its various programs
including 4Ps, AICS, Social Persons
for indigent Senior Citizen, Food and
non-food items, livelihood assistance,
among others.
ii. Target beneficiaries and, i.e.,
collaborative role of DSWD and local
governments from targeting, delivery
(e.g., door-to-door) and reporting
arrangements for SAP.

DSWD MC. 5, Series of 2020. i Identify 4Ps households eligible to

Supplemental Guidelines to
Memorandum Circular No. 4 Series of
2020 on the Provision of Social
Amelioration Measures by DSWD
DSWD MC. 6, Series of 2020.
Supplemental Guidelines for
Memorandum Circular No. Series of 2020
measures by DSWD to provide further
guidance on the provision of AICS to the
most affected residents of the areas
under quarantine
the receive emergency subsidy
ii Prescribe amount for emergency
subsidy following the regional rates and
in consideration of cash grants and rice
subsidy;
iii Clarify “expanded and enhanced”
4Ps
i. Clarify procedures for the transfer
of AICS to LGUs and prescribe
emergency assistance on a regional
basis for non-4Ps beneficiaries
ii. Provide guidelines monitoring,
reporting, compliance, and liquidation of
emergency assistance by LGUs, DSWD
 field offices, and DSWD to the Office of
the President
DSWD MC. 7, Series 2020. Amendment
and Supplemental Guidelines to Pertinent i. Clarify target beneficiaries to
Provisions of the MC Nos. 04, 05, and 06, include informal economy workers (e.g.,
Series of 2020 independent, small scale produces and
distributors of goods and services) such
as fisherfolks, and other vulnerable
groups as identified by the National Anti-
Poverty Commission to be at risk.

ii. Set parameter for computing

emergency subsidy for AICS including
4Ps based on regional minimum wage
rate but will not exceed the amount
determined by JMC 1 No. 1, series 2020.

iii. Identify distribution scheme of

cash assistance as following: (a) direct
cash payment; (b) payment through
electronic or digital means; (c) cash card
payments; (d) transfer of funds through
other national government agencies and
LGUs; or (e) any other mode of expedite
distribution of assistance.

Table _ . List of Policies issued by government for the implementation of the SAP

The law and other related policies mandates that the emergency subsidy be
given in the form of outright cash and be computed based on the prevailing minimum
wage rate in each region. The emergency subsidy was laid out to be channeled through
the various programs of the DSWD, DOLE, DTI, and DA and covered two months
during the quarantine period.
The DSWD and other concerned NGAs implementing the social amelioration to
resort to the most expeditious means of distributing the cash subsidy. The tasked
offices could either distribute the necessary amount through direct cash payouts,
electronic or digital means, or cash card payments.
The implementation of the government ‘ayuda’ has been a rough road for the
LGUs and the implementing agencies due to the urgency of the delivery of the financial
assistance, nationwide scope of the initiative and lack of an existing profiling system of
the government. Local government units were tapped and mobilized for the
identification of beneficiaries and distribution.
 The first step in the implementation and identification of beneficiaries is the
distribution of the Social Amelioration Card(SAC). According to DSWD, “the SAC shall
be the mechanism to monitor the eligible families in receiving any social amelioration
programs from any government agency, including the DSWD, during the COVID-19
crisis and other similar emergency situations in accordance with the provisions of RA
10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012.” (DSWD Memorandum Circular No.9,2020). In
short, the SAC will serve as a form of validation to check who will need amelioration
during the COVID-19 crisis. During this stage of implementation, there had already been
gaps on the information being disseminated by the government. It is not clear whether
all families all over the country will sign the SAC or only targeted families in targeted
areas. It is also not clear if it is the barangay, the municipal/city, or the provincial
government that is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the SACs are distributed and
collected. It is vague who will prepare and finalize the list of beneficiaries. It is a
question if all those listed as target beneficiaries can qualify even if they cannot comply
with the requirements since some of the requirements are hard to produce by people in
crisis situations (e.g. employment certificate for self-employed, solo mother ID, etc.).

Number of Families
Region Total Informal and Poor/Near
Poor
NCR 3,260,399 1,788,604
CAR 434,209 318,707
I 1,263,607 999,531
II 881,440 698,042
III 2,707,342 1,807,929
IV-A 3,511,076 2,249,567
IV-B 752,804 614,100
V 1,362,596 1,146,914
VI 1,835,555 1,472,683
VII 1,806,056 1,346,613
VIII 1,053,680 875,246
IX 890,346 721,841
X 1,111,803 892,577
XI 1,248,805 953,521
XII 1,139,025 953,853
BARMM 665,597 623,607
CARAGA 625,663 492,758
Total 24,550,003 17,956,093
Table _. DSWD’s Listahanan 2015 as basis for SAP target beneficiaries (President’s
Report to the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee, 2020)
The official list used as a starting point in the identification of beneficiaries was
the DSWD’s Listahanan 2015 or formally known as the National Household Targeting
System for Poverty Reduction which identified 15 million poor families and their
geographic location. Population growth was factored in based on the official data of
from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), resulting to the additional three million
households in the target.
The emergency subsidy was outlined to be given on a “per family” basis in order
to extend the cash assistance to all families falling under the category of low-income
household despite living in a single house. The proposed subsidy amount per region is
computed based on the prevailing minimum wage rate and taking into the consideration
The distribution of the cash benefit has also faced challenges. DSWD
Undersecretary Danilo Pamonag, in an interview with the Philippine News Agency
(2020) has shared that “the stringent validation process of local government units
(LGUs) in determining eligible beneficiaries caused major delays in the distribution of
the Covid-19 financial aid.” Aside from this, the delay was also amplified by the various
grievances from households who were not shortlisted to receive the financial aid. The
SAP implementers had also challenges in delivering the subsidy in geographically
isolated and disadvantaged areas particularly in the island municipalities and
barangays, which need sea and air transportation support in order to distribute cash aid.
Considering the challenges faced by the implementers during the payout of the
first tranche of the cash aid, the DSWD partnered with the Department of Information
and Communications Technology, USAID, and Developers Connect Philippines to
launch a mobile application that could expedite the distribution of the DSWD SAP’s
second tranche. The mobile app called ReliefAgad was able to help accelerate cash
relief distribution through e-wallets such as Paymaya and Gcash.
The Action for Economic Reforms (AER) attempted to evaluate the social
amelioration policy of the government, specifically that of DSWD by conducting a survey
among the beneficiaries of the first tranche of the cash aid. The survey aimed to know
key details in the distribution of SAP — who were covered, how much was given, and
how fast was it done.

In the President’s report to the Joint Congressional Committee on 29 June 2020, it was
stated that the various programs, including the SAP,