The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) continues to engage in its Cash-For-Work (CFW) Program families and individuals affected by last month’s oil spill incident in Oriental Mindoro.
Based on the latest report, 19,895 individuals in Oriental Mindoro and Antique are the current beneficiaries of the CFW program which aimed to provide temporary employment to families, mostly fisherfolks, who lost their daily living due to the incident.
The affected residents, who were identified by the local government units (LGUs) in the said provinces, were deployed to participate in various activities such as collecting locally available materials for making improvised oil spill boom and absorbent; establishing barangay or backyard gardens; mangrove rehabilitation; and conducting community clean-up drives. Some beneficiaries also assisted in the loading and unloading of family food packs.
In exchange for the work rendered, the program participants are provided by the DSWD with cash to meet their basic necessities such as food, and water, among others. To date, the Department said that some 1,344 beneficiaries have already benefited from the cash provided by its CFW program.
Each program participant received an amount equivalent to their daily regional minimum wage. The beneficiaries from Oriental Mindoro received their wages for the first five days of work amounting to Php 355 per day, while those from Antique were provided with their pay for the first 10 working days amounting to Php 450 per day.
As of press time, more than Php 3.1 million has been disbursed to cover the first batch of the implementation of the program in the municipalities of Bulalacao and Pola in Oriental Mindoro and Caluya in Antique Province.
Meanwhile, the DSWD is currently working on extending, from 15 to 45 days, the implementation of the CFW program in the affected areas, following the directive of Secretary Rex Gatchalian. The Department said that it is now finalizing the budgetary requirements for the said extension. The initial fund for implementing CFW is sourced from the Department’s Quick Response Fund.
In a related development, the Department is currently processing the downloading of funds to LGUs in Batangas province for the implementation of the CFW program intended for 2,000 beneficiaries, who will be deployed for 15 days of work. This is part of the DSWD’s effort to mitigate the effect of oils spill as it was reported to have reached Batangas City, and the towns of Mabini, Bauan, Lobo, San Luis, San Pascual, and Tingloy, and is now also threatening the Verde Island Passage.
Through the CFW program, the DSWD is able to offer a short-term intervention aimed at providing temporary employment for individuals affected by the incident. ###
