La Trinidad, Benguet – Some four hundred million pesos was included in the approved ₱ 5.024 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 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).