DBM backs realignment of DILG funds for contact tracing efforts

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Monday said the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) may realign its funds to cover the re-employment of contact tracers (CTs).

Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado gave the assurance after the DILG said on January 16 that it could only rehire around 15,000 CTs under a six-month contract due to budget constraints. The DILG hired 50,000 contact tracers last year.

“Modification lang po kailangan po n’yan, sandali lang po iyan. Hindi na po aakyat sa Pangulo ‘iyan. Dito na lang sa level ko, na-approve ko na po iyan,” Avisado said at the Laging Handa briefing.

“Wala pong problema patungkol diyan.”

DILG officer-in-charge Bernardo Florece Jr. earlier ordered DILG regional directors to advise all DILG-hired CTs in their respective regions to wind up their activities, process their clearances and return their identification cards to their respective local government unit (LGU) of deployment following the termination of contracts last December 31, 2020.

Florece also asked the regional offices to prioritize the rehiring of CTs in the LGUs who have active cases and have a rising number of new infections.

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, however, said the reemployment of only 15,000 CTs would not weaken the country’s contact tracing capacity.

He said that the rehiring only seeks to augment the current number of CTs to meet the Department of Health (DOH) standard of 1:800 contact tracer to population ratio.

“We already have 29,611 contact tracing teams which is composed of 255,854 contact tracers nationwide. Even without the DILG hiring, we already have sufficient number of contact tracers,” Malaya said in a statement on January 18. — RSJ, GMA News