TUPAD program can't be used for people's initiative: DOLE | ABS-CBN

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TUPAD program can't be used for people's initiative: DOLE

TUPAD program can't be used for people's initiative: DOLE

ABS-CBN News

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Updated Jan 17, 2024 04:51 PM PHT

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An employee of a silkscreen shop dries newly printed shirts to be given to recipients of the Department of Labor and Employment’s job creation program Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) at a workshop in Manila on November 16, 2021. ABS-CBN News/file
An employee of a silkscreen shop dries newly printed shirts to be given to recipients of the Department of Labor and Employment’s job creation program Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) at a workshop in Manila on November 16, 2021. ABS-CBN News/file

MANILA — The Department of Labor and Employment's emergency employment program cannot be used as an incentive to support an ongoing signature campaign to amend the 1987 Constitution, Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma stressed Wednesday.

The statement came amid reports — and a resolution for the House to launch an investigation — of access to government aid programs being promised in return for supporting a people's initiative to amend the Constitution and make Congress vote jointly on further amendments or revisions to the 37-year-old charter.

"Hindi po puwede na ipangako po 'yan dahil mayroon pong proseso—nagkakaroon ng profiling kung eligible ka, at dapat masunod din yung mga requirements sa documentation ng ating Commission on Audit," he said of the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD).

(That cannot be promised to anyone because there is a process — there is profiling to determine eligibility, and that mist be followed for documentation with the Commission on Audit.)

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TUPAD is a short-term cash-for-work program that Laguesma said is not meant to be a dole out to displaced workers.

"Ito po'y pinagtatrabahuhan at mayroong minimum at maximum period at lagi po ang sweldo rito ay bumabatay sa existing na minimum wage sa anuman pong rehiyon na mayroong programa ang DOLE na TUPAD," Laguesma said.

The People's Initiative campaign has prompted Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to file a resolution for charter change that seeks to relax economic provisions that limit foreign ownership in certain industries.

Zubiri's resolution seeks to allow Congress to pass legislation to open up public utilities, education and advertising to foreign investors.

The Senate president said Resolution of Both Houses No. 6, which the House of Representatives has committed to support, is meant to avoid a clash between the two chambers and limit the amendments to just the economic provisions.

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KILUSANG MAYO UNO: CHA-CHA WILL NOT BENEFIT REGULAR FILIPINOS

In a statement on Wednesday, labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno warned that changes to the Constitution will burden most Filipinos regardless of how the Constitution will be amended.

"Kung ganap na mapasakamay ng dayuhan ang public utilities gaya ng mass transport, kuryente at iba pa, aasahan natin ang katakut-takot na dagdag-singil," KMU chair Elmer Labog said.

(If public utilities like mass transport, power and others will be put fully in foreign hands, we can expect huge price increases.)

"Ngayon pa nga lang Enero, tumaas ang presyo ng tubig, [Liquified Petroleum Gas], langis, kuryente. May mga dagdag pasahe pang inaasahan sa [Metro Rail Transit], at mga dagdag sa kontribusyon sa PhilHealth at Pag-IBIG."

(Even now, costs of water, LPG, oil and electricity are going up. We are also looking at a fare increase on the MRT and increases in contributions to PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG.)

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The KMU believes attempts to revise the Constitution will give foreign investors more access to natural resources, labor and public utilities, and will also go into extending term limits for government officials.

Labog said that charter change will end up benefiting only a few.

"Tunay na makikinabang ang manggagawa, mga anakpawis at buong bayan kung maipatutupad ang tunay na reporma sa lupa at pambansang industriyalisasyon upang makapagtaguyod ng ekonomyang sariling atin at para sa atin."

(What will really benefit workers, the masses and the entire country is if we have genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization so we can build an econom that is our own and that will benefit us.)

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