MANILA — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Tuesday said its distribution of educational assistance would go down to the district level after Sept. 24.

This will enable those who lack gadgets or couldn't register online to have access to the fund, said DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo.

There are 2 remaining payout Saturdays for those who registered online, including Sept. 17 and Sept. 24.

"Yung extension is we go by districts. 'Yung last 2 Saturdays natin online 'yun and then after this, we will go per district," Tulfo said.

(During the extension, we go by districts. The last 2 Saturdays will be online and then after this, we will go per district.)

Around P500 million remained available out of the P1.5-billion budget for the program, he said.

• DSWD: No more online applications for educational assistance

Tulfo clarified that not everyone would be entitled to the cash aid.

"Maraming nagtatanong at maraming medyo nagagalit, eh if you really look at it, hindi naman namin sinabi na bibigyan namin kayo lahat. We didn't say that because if you look at it there are 20 million students from public school, kung bibigyan man namin 'yan tig-P5,000, ilang bilyon naman 'yun," he said.

(A lot of people were asking, and some were angry, but if you really look at it we didn't say all of you will be receiving the aid. We didn't say that because if you look at it, there are 20 million students in public schools. If we're going to give all of them P5,000 each, that would require billions of pesos in funds.)

The DSWD will consider other modes of distributing cash aid next school year, Tulfo said.

"Siguro tama 'yung suggestions ng karamihan na okay let's go down to DepEd na siguro. We will talk with DepEd... We will sit down with DepEd kung ano ang mas makakabuti," he said.

(Perhaps some people's suggestions were right, okay let's go down to the DepEd. We will talk with DepEd... We will sit down with DepEd to discuss what would be better.)

"We will ask with our LGUs, we will ask the assistance of everybody to make sure na marating natin lalo na 'yung... concern namin yung mga isolated areas yung mga nasa bundok sa bukid yung wala talaga," he added.

(We will ask with our LGUs, we will ask the assistance of everybody to make sure that the aid would reach isolated areas.)

The DSWD on Tuesday morning launched a platform where NGOs can transact with the agency through its website. This aims to streamline the licensing and accreditation of organizations working with the DSWD.

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