DOLE, DILG, MMDA ink pact to hire 6K more contact tracers

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Saturday inked a pact to boost the hiring of contact tracers.

The hiring of contact tracers will be under the DOLE’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program.

TUPAD is the Labor department’s safety net program to help cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to the workers in the informal sector, particularly the unpaid family workers and self-employed with elementary occupations.

The program provides temporary wage employment to displaced informal sector workers.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the DILG and MMDA aims to employ close to 6,000 contact tracers that will be tasked to help stop the spread of COVID-19 infections in the country.

“The government believes contact tracing is one of the key measures to arrest the mounting number of COVID-19 infections in the country,” Bello said.

The Labor chief said a total amount of P280,714,644 chargeable to the 2021 General Appropriations Act funds of DOLE budget shall be used to employ 5,754 workers to be engaged as contact tracers.

Under the agreement, DOLE shall engage the workers as contact tracers under the TUPAD program in partnership with DILG and MMDA to augment the current number of contact tracers in the country.

On the other hand, the DILG will facilitate the creation of a selection committee for hiring of contact tracers under the TUPAD Program.

Meanwhile, the MMDA will be tasked to assist in the dissemination of information on the hiring of TUPAD contact tracers, monitor the implementation of the project, and help in the proper dissemination of information of the project.

The DOLE has decided to shift its TUPAD program to contact tracing to help local governments handle the rise in COVID-19 cases. -MDM, GMA News