ATOK, Benguet – The municipal government recently received from the labor department some PhP3 million to be distributed to qualified beneficiaries from the town’s barangays under the Tulong Pangkabuhayan Para Sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program for them to cope with the difficult situation of having no sustainable sources of income.
Mayor Franklin Smith, however, said that the beneficiaries of the assistance will be the bonafide residents of the municipality who never received any assistance from the different programs of different government agencies over the past several years.
“We will prioritize the bonafide residents of our eight barangays who never received any form of financial assistance under the various programs of the different government agencies. We have to share to our less fortunate brothers and sisters the funds that are supposed to be due to them,” Mayor Smithy stressed.
The local chief executive claimed that the municipal government will coordinate with the barangay officials for them to identify the residents who were not able to access any financial support from any government program in the past for them to be prioritized in the distribution of the funds from the TUPAD program so that everyone deserving to be given such aid will be provided and benefit from it.
Mayor Smit admitted that many people had been visiting his office informing him about their alleged non-inclusion in the list of beneficiaries of previous payouts conducted in the different parts of the municipality despite being qualified to be recipients of specific assistance from concerned government agencies.
According to him, the list of beneficiaries for the upcoming distribution of the TUPAD funds will be prepared and pass through stringent scrutiny so that those who were never recipients of assistance from the various government programs will be prioritized in the list.
He expressed gratitude to those who assisted the municipal government in accessing the funds from the labor department as it will surely be a big boost in the implementation of the government assistance program in the municipality and for those who were not recipients of any government assistance to be given the chance to be given the needed aid.
What is important, according to Mayor Smith, is that for the residents to be honest to declare that they were not recipients of any assistance program of the government so that the municipal government will include them in the list of beneficiaries in future payouts that will be done by the government agencies.
The mayor said that he will continue to work with concerned government agencies to ensure that the municipality can access the assistance programs of various government agencies so that the qualified residents are provided such aid in the future.
Atok is one of the lower class municipalities in the northern part of the province that relies on agriculture and tourism as its major economic drivers because it is now emerging as one of the preferred tourist destinations outside Baguio City. By Dexter A. See
