Erwin Tulfo slams House for putting AICS bill on aid for poor on ‘deadlock’

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Erwin Tulfo on Wednesday questioned the refusal of the House of Representatives to agree to the Senate’s amendments on the bill that institutionalizes the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) program.

An impassioned Tulfo criticized the House, claiming that the provision – which bars government officials and employees from delivering or implementing the financial assistance program – is holding back the House from signing the measure.

“We waited for several minutes for our counterpart, the lower House, to sign that AICS bill. Unfortunately, we are at a deadlock. They did not want to sign,” Tulfo said during the Senate special session.

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He added: “The section says, clearly specifies, that a politician is banned from distributing aid that comes from the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) itself. That is what we had been debating about for a long, long while earlier today.”

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READ: House OKs bill institutionalizing AICS aid program

The AICS program is an initiative of the DSWD that Tulfo previously headed. He also pushed vehemently for the inclusion of this so-called “anti-epal” provision in the AICS bill.

In Filipino slang, epal refers to someone who is an attention grabber, or someone who is present but whose presence is not needed, or a person who was not invited.

The senator then asked whether members of the House are afraid of losing a government-funded mechanism supposedly being used to gain voters.

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He stressed: “I don’t understand…. What is there to study? Is it because they are afraid that finally, after so many years that this AICS had been used for politicking, the law will already stop this?”“What is there to study, to review that the politician won’t be present in the distribution of assistance?” he wondered.

“Because the distribution will be politicized again; it will again be used for the election,” he pointed out.

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“If you will not vote for that politician, if you will not vote, you won’t be able to receive assistance from that politician,” Tulfo explained the consequence.

In the same breath, he reiterated the purpose of the “anti-epal” provision saying, “We are trying to stop that… that practice wherein politicians are using the AICS for politicking. The aid should be given only to the poor.”

The proponents of the AICS bill in the lower chamber have yet to confirm what provisions in the measure they want to study further.

READ: Akap, AICS not politically influenced, says DSWD

The AICS bill is among the priority measures that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. hoped to be considered when he ordered Congress to hold special sessions.

Supposedly, the proposed measure was just a step away from Marcos’ signing, thereby institutionalizing the AICS program, but the Senate could not ratify the bill without the agreement of the House.

The AICS bill is expected to be discussed in another bicameral conference committee, where both chambers could agree on the contents of the measure. /apl

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