MANKAYAN, Benguet – Some three hundred sixteen displaced workers and heavily impacted individuals from the town’s twelve barangays recently received their financial assistance from the labor department’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program to help them cope with the heavy impact of the implementation of the community quarantine to the local economy and their sources of livelihood.
Mayor Frenzel Ayong, together with Anthony Kuan of the congressional district office of Benguet caretaker congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap, distributed the P3,500 financial assistance to each of the beneficiaries during simple rites held at the municipal hall here.
He said that the recipients were elated to get their financial assistance from municipal officials and representatives of Congressman Yap as they will use the same to help in coping with the effects of the community quarantine implementation to their sources of livelihood and for the too slowly recover from the present crisis.
Earlier, Congressman Yap assured each of the province’s 140 barangays that he will work out the provision of financial assistance to some 25 heavily impacted individuals under the TUPAD program and some 15 vulnerable individuals each barangay as recipients of the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Mayor Ayong expressed his gratitude to Congressman Yap and to his representatives for appreciating the orderly distribution of the financial assistance to the identified recipients, saying that the municipal government, in close coordination with the barangay officials, actively participated in identifying the beneficiaries of the program so that the deserving ones will be the recipients of the financial assistance.
Under the TUPAD Barangay Ko, Bahay Ko program, identified beneficiaries will be paid 10 days based on the prevailing minimum wage in the said area for working 4 hours each day of participating in barangay clean-up activities or cleaning their surroundings to help in containing the spread of the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the locality.
According to him, beneficiaries of the AICS program of the social welfare department will be receiving their financial assistance later as funds for the said program had not been downloaded by the agency although the list of beneficiaries from the municipal government was already submitted for validation and cross checking by the agency.
The local chief executive called on the beneficiaries of the different social welfare programs of concerned government agencies who have not yet received their benefits to be patient in awaiting the release of such assistance because of the tedious processes involved in facilitating the release of the earmarked funds for such purpose.
The municipal mayor asserted that the assistance will be immediately given to the beneficiaries once the funds will be made available by the concerned agencies, thus, the need for them to understand the delays in the release of the same because of the various requirements that have to be validated and evaluated before the same will be downloaded for distribution to the identified recipients.
By HENT