Some 109,851 displaced or disadvantaged workers in the Ilocos Region have earned income during the pandemic through the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), a community-based package of assistance that provides emergency employment.

TUPAD is a project of the national government through the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Of the total number of beneficiaries from January 1 to December 12 this year, 9,568 were from Ilocos Norte, 37,118 workers from Ilocos Sur, 9,968 from La Union, 13,295 from Western Pangasinan, 14,014 from Central Pangasinan, and 25,818 were from Eastern Pangasinan.

In a phone interview on Monday, DOLE Ilocos information officer Justin Paul Marbella said DOLE has released a total of PHP444 million for the wages of workers who were tapped for cash-for-work services under the TUPAD program.

“The work of the beneficiaries ranged from disinfecting their barangays, cleaning their surroundings, repairing their homes, parks, schools, and other tasks ordered by their village chiefs,” he said.

Marbella said the workers were also given personal protective equipment and micro-insurance to protect them in their discharge of duties.

“Nagpapasalamat ako dahil malaking tulong ito sa mga magulang ko, ibibigay ko ito sa kanila (I am so grateful because this will be a big help to my parents, I will give it to them),” Evangeline Layno, a resident of Dagupan City and one of the recipients, said in a recent interview.

Layno said her mother works as a house helper while her father is a baker.

“Magtatrabaho sana ako sa Bataan kaso naabutan ng pandemic (I was supposed to work in Bataan but then the pandemic happened),” she added.

Layno and her fellow recipients worked from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. as street sweepers.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda, during her recent visit to Dagupan City, said she also supports the government’s measure for the economic recovery of providing emergency employment or assistance to displaced workers amid the pandemic.

Legarda said the country’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) recovery plan should include the institutionalization of the sustainable livelihood program (SLP) for the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps) household beneficiaries, and the climate change mitigation programs.

“I believe in giving them the means to be able to have their own income (through) livelihood, we give a person the opportunity to learn how to fish so that they are good for life,” she added. (PNA)