Some 128 residents of the key cities in Northern Mindanao who lost their livelihood due to the pandemic and fire received Tuesday cash aid as seed capital under the Livelihood Assistance Grant (LAG) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office X.

Under the Sustainable Livelihood Program, LAG provides livelihood assistance to the beneficiaries for them to live back to normalcy and recover from the effects of the crisis situation they are into.

In Iligan City, fire victims received P20,000 each while those who lost their livelihood during the COVID-19 pandemic received 15,000 each.

There are 99 beneficiaries of the said city.

In Bukidnon province, 25 beneficiaries of Malaybalay City and four others from Valencia City received P15,000 each during the payout inside Barangay 9 Covered Court, Malaybalay City.

DSWD Field Office X Regional Director Mari-Flor A. Dollaga said the assistance is an outright grant and the beneficiaries have no obligation to pay it back to the DSWD.

However, Director Dollaga said the qualified beneficiaries are expected to liquidate the money they received to make sure that their grant utilization plan is implemented as planned.

LAG is one of the government approaches to help families recover and rehabilitate their livelihood and employment, especially those affected by community quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic and those whose property was razed off by fire.

LAG prioritizes households with low-income or whose small business has been affected by the pandemic.

The local government unit identifies the potential beneficiaries of LAG.

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