DILG, DOLE, and MMDA signed a deal in order to hire more contact tracers.
On Saturday, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) signed a deal in order to boost the hiring of contact tracers.
The hiring of contact tracers will be under the Labor department’s “Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD)” program.
TUPAD or Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers was the Labor department’s safety net program in order to help cushion the impact of the coronavirus pandemic to the workers in the informal sector — particularly the unpaid family workers and self-employed with elementary occupations as well.
The said program, according to a report on GMA News Online, provided temporary wage employment to displaced informal sector workers.
According to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with MMDA and the DILG aimed to employ close to 6,000 contact tracers that will be tasked to help stop the spread of coronavirus infections in the Philippines.
“The government believes contact tracing is one of the key measures to arrest the mounting number of COVID-19 infections in the country,” Bello said.
Bello also said that a total amount of PHP 280,714,644 chargeable to the 2021 General Appropriations Act funds of DOLE budget shall be used to employ 5,754 workers to be engaged as contact tracers.
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Under the said agreement, the Labor departmet shall engage the workers as contact tracers under the TUPAD program in partnership with MMDA and the DILG in order to augment the current number of contact tracers in the Philippines.
On the other hand, the Department of Interior and Local Government will facilitate the creation of a selection committee for hiring of contact tracers under the Labor department’s TUPAD Program.
Meanwhile, the Metro Manila Development Authority will be tasked to assist in the dissemination of information on the hiring of contact tracers under TUPAD, to monitor the implementation of the said project, and to help in the proper dissemination of information of the said project.
The Labor department has decided to shift its TUPAD program to contact tracing in order to help local governments handle the rise in coronavirus cases.
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