LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Benguet caretaker congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Yap announced that the Benguet Congressional District Office and his mobile ‘tulong’ program will be conducting a series of mobile passporting activities in some municipalities in the province to help bring the government services closer to the people especially this times when the movement of people is restricted.
Yap, who chairs the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, stated that his office is finalizing the coordination with the concerned government agencies to ensure the smooth roll out of this activity in the selected municipalities by next month to ensure that residents will be issued their passports without having to undergo the process at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Baguio City to be able to be issued such passport.
He pointed out that the conduct of the mobile passporting will also include the issuance of clearances by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) so that people can have with them the said documents for whatever purpose they will use such passport and NBI clearance in the future.
Further, the lawmaker claimed that the mobile passporting is a component of his mobile ‘tulong’ program purposely to help in bringing the basic government services closer to the people so that they will not be exposed to the elements that might cause them to contract the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) that might compromise their health condition.
Initially, the mobile passporting will be conducted in La Trinidad, Kapangan and Mankayan but the definite dates for these are still being ironed out with the concerned government agencies aside from waiting the status of the different provinces in terms of their community quarantine classification to prevent issues that may transpire on the compliance to the prevailing restrictions being imposed by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases.
According to him, the mobile passporting in some selected municipalities will definitely allow people to have easier access to the various government services.
Congressman Yap underscored that his office will not stop in looking for appropriate interventions from the concerned government agencies to help in mitigating the impact of the ongoing pandemic to the employment, economic activities and sources of livelihood of the people, especially those from the rural areas who were deprived of access to basic services due to the restrictions on their movement.
Last year, Yap worked out the establishment of the mobile ‘tulong’ program towards extending assistance to people heavily impacted by the ongoing pandemic, apart from facilitating the access of the residents to government services that are aimed at allowing them to cope up with the difficult situation they are encountering because of the prevailing health crisis. By HENT
