Legarda, Escudero seek TUPAD program 'expansion'

At least two senators on Wednesday sought the expansion of the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged Workers' (TUPAD) program.

The TUPAD program, which was given P12 billion under the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), is the DOLE’s community-based package of assistance providing emergency employment.

Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, sponsor of DOLE’s budget for 2024, said she will introduce a special provision in the bill containing the P5.768-trillion spending plan for 2024 to make the TUPAD program sustainable.

“Maglalagay ako ng special provision para ‘yung TUPAD, ‘di lang sa pagwawalis sa tabing kalye, kung hindi maaring maging puhunan para magkaroon ng maliit na negosyo para beyond sa 10 or 30 days, may trabaho siya na pangsariling negosyo,” Legarda said at the Senate plenary deliberations of the proposed national budget.

“Kaya i-expand natin ‘yung TUPAD na hindi lang walis walis, ‘yung pwedeng parte ng kanyang self- employment,” she added.

(I will propose a special provision in the budget so that the TUPAD program will not be limited to street-sweeping. We want this program to help the beneficiaries start a small business so they can have their source of income after they work under the TUPAD program for 10 or 30 days. Let’s expand this government program.)

Senator Francis Escudero likewise proposed to expand the program to help Filipinos who are hit by calamities.

He shared that during his stint as governor of Sorsogon, they implemented a similar program as TUPAD wherein their constituents who were hit by calamities were employed until they recover from the effects of the typhoon.

“The deal was for them to not to clean or repair their own house but clean and repair the house of their neighbour and they can do it among themselves. This enabled our affected barangays at that time in Sorsogon to recover from calamity with their heads held up high and without really depending on dole outs and asking for help without giving anything in return,” Escudero said.

He then suggested the following:

• Amend the guidelines of TUPAD or include in special provisions that the program can be implemented for more than 90 days and it can include the same beneficiaries more than once in a calendar year if it is for the purpose of helping them recover from a calamity, a pandemic or a tragedy
• Expand the program to include wasted or severely wasted parents or siblings which will last for at least 180 days and not 90 days.
• Carve out from the calamity fund of the president an amount as a Quick Response Fund for DOLE to use TUPAD program for the recovery of people in calamity-hit areas.

Legarda said she accepts all the suggestions of Escudero and she will ask Senator Sonny Angara, the sponsor of the Office of the President’s budget in the Senate, to consider the proposal. —VAL, GMA Integrated News