Is Government Assistance On the Way Now ?

[scott h]

After two weeks of quarantine our street finally got our "assistance pack". One small frozen chicken (which we gave to our neighbor who has a large family)

Over the last two weeks the mayors FB has been having live watch parties showing the give always.

It is understandable, our neighborhood is a stronghold of the opposition to the Mayors political party. 

[RBM]

19 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

The story does not say how it will be distributed.  Easy to make a big announcement but details are scarce. 

if one takes a peep at how the proceeds were dispersed during and after yolander one would cringe.

Lets pray for some semblance of accountability in this program.

 

[RBM]

13 hours ago, scott h said:

Uncontrollable IMHO.

Scenario. Big wig from Manila goes to each city with a boat load of cash.

 

Do we trust this big wig???

[manofthecoldland]

6 hours ago, Mike J said:

The wife was able to go out yesterday to distribute rice, milk, and a few treats to needy families in our area.  They were very appreciative and said they had not yet seen any other assistance from government at any level.  I expect it is going to take some time and coordination in view the scope of the needs.

Me cap is doffed to your missus. 

I am considering opening a thread re 'Charitable Private Assistance Efforts' / 'Aiding the Pandemic's Hardest Hit' /  Relieving Some of Your Neighbors In Need,  etc. 

Before opening this thread, after seeing how appreciative our Cuya and his 2 carpenter nephews were for having a bit of work wages with which to feed their families (one has 5 kids), I told the Mrs. "Now that the National government intends to distribute some sorely needed assistance, I might not have to buy that sack of rice, dried noodle packets, canned sardines,  coffee, creamer, sugar that we talked about to help some of the nearby neediest."

Her reply was cold, hard and brief. "If you want to help.... help. If not....don't."

We're 2 weeks into the initial lock down here, with at least 2 more to go from the initial plan. No work, no money, no food for the many who live on daily earnings.

The promised assistance to our barangay trike drivers never materialized, except for some small satchels (1 or 2 kilos) of rice last week that many angrily refused, because it was not only the poorest quality, but had a lot of dirt in it.

My wife and the older women here are of the opinion that if the LGU gets the promised national relief, they will give them maybe P1K and divert or pocket the rest... based on past experiences.  I hope not.

So today I told her, that despite our current low household budget until  either my next pension disbursement or my US govenment's promised P60K arrives, we will go ahead with our plan tomorrow, if we can work with a budget of P 5-6K.  Now I am in her good graces again..... and she and ate have a worthwhile and emotionally fulfilling project to occupy some of their time with.

I will be interested in how they manage this. 

[Snowy79]

I think this is how it works. 

[GeoffH]

One of the family members who is a recent police officer posted a picture of a voucher and then later a bag of rice (15kg maybe?) plus a bag with some other foods in it.  I can't help wondering if he got the voucher and food early because he is a police office but that's not the sort of thing I can really ask.  And to be fair they are still working on the quarantine so there is that.  But most of the other family members have said they haven't gotten anything.

I asked SWMBO to make up a list of the family households and we're going to organize a bag of rice and a small amount of peso for each after I get the settlement money for my house.  It was my idea but she looked very relieved and then happy when I suggested it.  I found out she had sent from her own savings to each household already for this week.  The house is supposed to settle (finalize) this Friday but I probably won't get the money until next week.

 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by GeoffH

[Arizona Kid]

10 hours ago, scott h said:

After two weeks of quarantine our street finally got our "assistance pack". One small frozen chicken (which we gave to our neighbor who has a large family)

Over the last two weeks the mayors FB has been having live watch parties showing the give always.

It is understandable, our neighborhood is a stronghold of the opposition to the Mayors political party. 

We got 2 kilos of rice, one can of sardines and 2 packs of noodles. We gave it to one of our trike driving friends that has kids.

[Jollygoodfellow]

On the subject of issuing aid packs from the local governments I think one has to think about how big of a task this is. It's not like you can go down all the nice wide tree lined streets and knock on the door of a house to do so. I would assume the only way it would work is the people come to them at designated distribution centers with ID but even that is hard with lockdowns and not wanting people to gather and no public transport.

There is no easy way to do this.

[hk blues]

21 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

On the subject of issuing aid packs from the local governments I think one has to think about how big of a task this is. It's not like you can go down all the nice wide tree lined streets and knock on the door of a house to do so. I would assume the only way it would work is the people come to them at designated distribution centers with ID but even that is hard with lockdowns and not wanting people to gather and no public transport.

There is no easy way to do this.

Yes, fair point.  But, given the number of calamities experienced here you would have though they would have had some processes in place from previous experiences.  Maybe they have and it just takes longer than we think it should.  No easy task. 

[Jollygoodfellow]

8 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Yes, fair point.  But, given the number of calamities experienced here you would have though they would have had some processes in place from previous experiences.  Maybe they have and it just takes longer than we think it should.  No easy task. 

This is how they said it is done yesterday for relief money.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/01/20/philippines-starts-processing-cash-aid-for-18-million-families