Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles on Saturday lauded the government for tapping beneficiaries of the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa ating Disadvantaged/Displaced (TUPAD) Workers program for the country’s national greening program.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have signed a memorandum of agreement to mobilize TUPAD beneficiaries as forest rangers.
“This is an excellent program that not only helps address our shortage of forest workers, but also provides our TUPAD beneficiaries with meaningful and noble work that will directly benefit their communities and the whole country,” Nograles said.
“The MOA is a creative solution to our need for more forest workers, and hopefully with this we can better monitor and protect these areas especially in the face of continued encroachment,” he added.
Nograles is chairman of the House Committee on Labor and Employment.
He acknowledged the potential impact of the training that TUPAD workers would undergo in “instilling a green consciousness” among the people.
“This is not a dead-end job, not boring, as you learn a lot. This is an opportunity to empower our TUPAD workers, and to instill in them a green consciousness that they can pass on to their families and friends,” he stressed.
The solon expressed confidence that the MOA would be “only the first step in our efforts to revitalize our forests and mitigate the effects of the climate crisis.”