LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Some four hundred million pesos was included in the approved P5.024 trillion annual budget for this year to support the sustained implementation of the labor department’s Tulong Panhanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program in the province.
Benguet caretaker congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Yap claimed that some 70,000 to 80,000 residents of the province stand to benefit from the government’s TUPAD program for this year to ensure that at least one member of the households in the province will receive financial assistance from the concerned government agencies where the various programs are lodged.
He claimed that the inclusion of the fund to support the implementation of the TUPAD program in the province was made possible after he presented to the labor department the need to continuously provide assistance to the people in the different parts of the province whose employment and economic activities had been heavily impacted by the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
In 2021, Congressman Yap incorporated in the annual budget of the labor department some P180 million to significantly increase the number of beneficiaries of the TUPAD from the 2020 level.
According to him, now is the time to continue extending assistance from concerned government agencies to the people impacted by the ongoing pandemic to help in mitigating the impact of the pandemic to their established sources of livelihood.
Aside from the labor department’s TUPAD program, Yap is also closely coordinating with the social welfare department for the sustained implementation of the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) and with the health department for residents to benefit from the medical assistance to indigent patients (MAIP).
The lawmaker had been repeatedly announcing that people must feel the presence of the government by making assistance enshrined under their various programs, projects and activities of government accessible to allow them to recover from the serious negative effect of the pandemic to their employment and economic activities.
He urged the residents to wisely use the financial assistance they will be receiving from the various programs, projects and activities of concerned government agencies to be able to hurdle the challenges of the ongoing pandemic that have resulted to their loss of jobs and economic activities and it is the obligation of local officials to continue looking for available initiatives that will contribute in uplifting their welfare for them to survive the negative impact of the pandemic.
Yap is the chairman of the powerful House committee on appropriations that is in charge of working on the appropriations that will be earmarked to the various government offices to enhance the delivery of quality basic services and sustain the implementation of high impact development projects. By HENT
