PLDT and Smart Enable Free Access to DSWD’s “ReliefAgad” App
PLDT-Smart is providing free access for all Smart, TNT and SUN subscribers to the “ReliefAgad” app (www.reliefagad.ph) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) so that beneficiaries of the government’s social amelioration program can conveniently register and receive financial assistance electronically.
PLDT, Smart: ReliefAgad
“ReliefAgad,” launched in May 14 by DSWD and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), is an app that facilitates automated cash aid distribution of the government’s social amelioration program (SAP) which aids families affected by the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The app was developed to address challenges in updating beneficiary data and information as well as to accelerate the distribution of disbursements to beneficiaries. The “ReliefAgad” app makes the cash relief distribution faster through e-wallets such as PayMaya, and may be accessed by families who have already received their social amelioration card (SAC).
DSWD partnered with USAID’s E-PESO Project and Developers Connect Philippines (DevCon) for the Relief Agad project wherein a segment of the beneficiaries may self-enroll through an online form, reducing the need to fill out and encode paper forms.
In a statement to the DSWD, Alfredo S. Panlilio, Smart President and CEO and PLDT Chief Revenue Officer said, “We encourage qualified beneficiaries to register to ReliefAgad app and link their mobile numbers so they can receive their financial assistance faster via digital means.”
In the same statement, Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President and CEO and SVP and head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups supplemented, “We are committed to assisting the DSWD in promoting electronic registrations to the Relief Agad app for more efficient distribution of the second tranche of cash relief through contactless transactions.”
Once they register, citizen beneficiaries can link their mobile numbers and choose their preferred means to receive their financial assistance. Options include eWallets such as PayMaya.