That our government must assist workers who become victims of calamities shouldn’t be argued about anymore. It is the right thing to do.
In fact, the government now helps all victims of calamities—worker or otherwise—by providing them food, water, medical care, and temporary shelter during and immediately after every calamity and by helping them rebuild their lives thereafter.
Its efforts, however, are still criticized for being superficial and inadequate.
Worse, the grant of government assistance is perceived as being selective and denied to known political followers of the administration’s “contra-partido” or opposition leaders.
Its response to the victims of Typhoon “Yolanda,” for instance, has become a classic example of this selective grant of government assistance.
The government does relatively better in protecting our people from future disasters through disaster risk reduction.
Maybe it is because the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council—the body tasked to do this—involves almost the entire executive branch and even includes important non-government and private sector organizations.
Established by law and chaired by the defense secretary, the council maintains a 24-hour operations center that is now equipped with state-of-the-art facilities that were partly donated by the private sector. It is being supervised by a full-time executive officer with the rank of undersecretary.
What is wrong is how workers who become victims of calamities are being assisted by the Department of Labor and Employment.
Only recently, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has assured them—specifically farmers and informal sector workers—that they would be provided by DOLE with the help that they need to recover from Typhoon “Nona.”
In particular, she promised emergency employment for the 4,000 workers in the Mimaropa region and Region 8 who have been severely affected by the typhoon.
Shockingly disappointing was her statement that:
“We are working with the International Labor Organization which pledged assistance for the emergency employment, since the DOLE, at this time of the year, has exhausted its funds under the Tulong Alalay Panghanapbuhay for Displaced Workers, or TUPAD.”
“I have directed our regional directors in Region 4-A, Region 4-B, Region 5, and Region 8—the regions most-affected by Typhoon Nona—to coordinate closely with the ILO for the fast delivery of the emergency employment program.”
Is it now DOLE’s mandate to assist farmers and informal sector workers who become victims of calamities? Obviously, the agriculture and agrarian reform departments—with or without calamities—should be tasked to do this.
Could DOLE provide social protection to informal sector workers better than the financial viability-obsessed Social Security System? Maybe.
It may then follow as precedent the unorthodox way the social welfare department obtained its mandate of granting family allowance to indigent families through its 4 P’s program and social pensions to indigent senior citizens.
Both are non-contributory dole out programs worth billions of pesos that are funded publicly by a consenting Congress out to gain the political loyalty of voters.
DOLE’s calamity assistance could have been in the form of the more practical pack of rice, sardines, noodles and water. After all, these ready-to-eat food items are what can only be bought by the P5,000-per-person budget for emergency employment of DOLE.
Proudly, DOLE reported having released P520.029 million to 99,325 individual beneficiaries for emergency employment and livelihood assistance under its Yolanda Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program but kept quiet about paying each beneficiary P5,235.63 only.
In body and spirit, TUPAD is unemployment insurance albeit a primitive form of it. And while TUPAD’s immediate goal is lofty and undoubtedly humanitarian, unemployment insurance is not yet a state obligation.
Remember that numerous UI bills had been filed in Congress—several versions were authored by the imminent labor leader and former Senator Ernesto Herrera who passed away in 2015—but employers had consistently rejected all of them vehemently.
Instead, why not use TUPAD’s budget to increase pensions? Pensioners have only pensions for their means of income and surely, calamities also affect them adversely. Besides, TUPAD is financed from public funds that are collected from overly-taxed citizens and lowly-paid workers.
If DOLE really wants to pilot unemployment insurance, it should involve employers and workers.
Haven’t DOLE successfully established thousands of public employment service offices nationwide? It should now easily convince everybody that UI could become a viable contributory scheme to be funded by employers and workers who would be its eventual beneficiaries.
Secretary Baldoz obviously wanted to please PNoy after he declared last Dec. 18 a national state of calamity following the onslaught of Nona. Oddly, it was first named “Nonoy.”
P4 million is only what DOLE’s regional director still needed to fully implement Oriental Mindoro’s emergency employment program. It is a small amount that she could have easily sourced from the cash-awash budget department if assisting Nona’s victims was indeed a national concern.
Instead, she instructed her director to “coordinate closely” about this dole from ILO.
It’s a fact that ILO is donating money to promote its social protection programs. But it only does this as technical assistance to impoverished countries in token amounts.
We shouldn’t line up anymore for this kind of dole money.
