(SPOT.ph) Pasig City, under the leadership of Mayor Vico Sotto, is one of the local government units that are being lauded for how they're handling the COVID-19 crisis. As early as April, the young mayor said that his office will be distributing cash assistance to Pasigueño families not included in the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Social Amelioration Program. Distribution of the 8,000-pesos aid started today, May 5, and the list of qualified households not only include "traditional or nuclear families" but also solo parents, married couples without a child, and LGBTQ partners with a child. The latter earned the praise of many individuals on Twitter, citing the acknowledgement of LGBTQ families as a huge step towards inclusion.
The Pasig City Public Information Office, in a post, laid out guidelines about the Pasig Supplemental Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
- Qualified nuclear families include married couples with an underage child or whose child of legal age is still living with them. If the child already has his/her own family but is still living with his/her parents, he/she can still qualify for supplemental SAP as long as he/she has a job and pays for his/her own meals. Couples with children need not be legally married to be qualified, as long as the child shares the same surname as the father or mother.
- Grandparents living with their grandchild are also included in Pasig's supplemental SAP list of beneficiaries, as long as the parents are not with them. In case the grandchild is already working, he/she must also be supporting his/her grandparents and younger siblings in the same household.
- A single parent with a child (underage or legal age) under his/her care is also qualified. If the child has his/her own family but still living with his/her own parents, he/she is counted under the same household. The single parent qualification is also extended to a widow or widower who still has a child under his/her care.
- LGBTQ partners who are living together with a child is considered a family under Pasig's supplemental SAP as long as the child shares a surname with one of the parents.
- Pasigueños included in the list of the national SAP, 4Ps beneficiaries who are automatically included in Department of Social Welfare and Development's SAP, government employees, non-married couples living together and without a child, and individuals temporarily living in the city are not qualified for the supplemental SAP.
- Sotto, in a Facebook Live, also said that families living in condominum untis or renting houses in Pasig City will also receive financial aid. "Kasama po ang condo. Lahat po. Pag sinabi ko pong lahat. Ibig sabihin lahat. Kasama po ang nangungupahan. Basta residente ng Pasig," he added.
For more information, follow Pasig City Public Information Office on Facebook.
Main image by Judgefloro on Wikimedia Commons
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