Ikinagulat ng isang mambabatas nang malaman kay Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian na mayroong 10 undersecretaries at 21 assistant secretaries sa kaniyang ahensiya.

Sa pagtalakay sa P207 billion budget ng DSWD para sa 2024, tinanong ni House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro kung ilan ang matataas na opisyal sa naturang kagawaran.

“Yes, there are 10 Usecs (undersecretaries) and 20 Asecs (assistant secretaries), and we are in the process of streamlining. We seek the indulgence of the Office of the President and the good congresswoman as we realign the functions of the department,” pahayag ni Gatchalian.

“Let me also point out that the department used to have 11 Usecs, and these were funded and went through proper process. But then again, we are streamlining and realigning our function to see to it that we are compliant with the provisions on the mandate of the department,” dagdag ng kalihim.

Ayon kay Castro, sa halip na matataas na opisyal ang kunin, dapat na mas dagdagan ng DSWD ang kanilang field workers, gaya ng mga social worker.

“Nabigla lang ako na 10 Usecs and 20 Asecs, as this is the only agency with such huge number of Asecs and Usecs. In terms of size, DepEd is a bigger agency,” puna niya. “In my view, it would be better to invest on the people on the ground, the social workers.”

Ipinaliwanag naman ni Gatchalian na bagaman kailangan ang streamlining sa DSWD, nilinaw niya na malaki ang trabaho sa kagawaran na may 34,000 manggagawa.

“We manage 34,000 employees, we manage a lot of grants and we run multiple programs. Yes, we are working on streamlining, but if we take into account these details, we run a very big bureaucracy,” saad niya.

Sinabi rin ni Gatchalian na inaayos na nila ang regularization ng mga job order at contract of service workers.

“Around 65%...a big chunk of our workforce are contract of service, and we continue to make representations with the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) to make sure that our employees become regular,” pahayag ng kalihim.

“We understand that we have a tight fiscal space kaya hindi lahat ng request napagbibigyan. We get some from time to time, and we will continue to strive to provide them security of tenure. We sympathize with them and we continue to work on that notion,” dagdag niya.—FRJ, GMA Integrated News