LEGAZPI CITY – At least 23,000 indigent seniors and 2,500 tricycle drivers would soon receive cash assistance from the Legazpi City government after its council passed this March an ordinance allocating a budget for social services and infrastructure programs worth PHP174 million.
Mayor Noel Rosal, in an interview on Tuesday, said the recipients would receive PHP2,000 each to augment their financial needs due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the spiraling cost of basic commodities triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Rosal said the city government would also release PHP72.4 million to beneficiaries based on the guidelines of the Bayanihan 2 and Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Displaced/Disadvantaged (TUPAD) workers programs led by the Department of Labor and Employment.
He said the recipient senior citizens are those duly registered at the Legazpi City’s Office of the Senior Citizen Affairs (OSCA) and the tricycle drivers affected by the pandemic.
The cash assistance materialized through the newly enacted Appropriation Ordinance 15-0007-2022 allocating PHP174,562,809 to fund the city’s priority programs, projects, and activities.
Rosal said the city government also allocated PHP5 million for the stocking and prepositioning of welfare goods composed of 4,050 sacks of National Food Authority rice; and PHP1.48 million to pay incurred taxes to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) by Legazpi City as the lessor of the LKY Grand Central Terminal, Bicol Hair, Ayala, and Gregorian malls and city fish port.
“Last year, we already distributed a PHP30.45-million cash assistance to the senior citizens and tricycle drivers through approved resolution No. 15-0290-202,” Rosal said. (With reports from Connie Calipay/PNA)