Leni urges LGUs to help informal sector workers

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo yesterday appealed to local government units (LGUs) in Metro Manila to provide assistance to informal sector workers who will be affected by the planned region-wide curfew as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

“What will happen to the pedicab drivers, to street vendors who sell at night? (LGUs) must include in their declaration the plan for them, how they are going to help them so they can still buy food (for their families),” Robredo said in her weekly program over radio station dzXL.

“Those who are not regular employees, how are we going to help them? If they don’t work and have nothing to eat, they will be forced to go out. The subsidy must be immediate so they won’t have any reason to leave their houses,” she added.

The Vice President also urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to clarify its rules on contractual workers who would be forced not to report for work during the month-long community quarantine in Metro Manila.

“The DOLE should clarify its guidelines on the affected employees,” she said.

Robredo also called on DOLE to implement its Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers or TUPAD program in Metro Manila.

TUPAD is “a community-based package of assistance that provides emergency employment for displaced workers, underemployed and seasonal workers, for a minimum period of 10 days, but not to exceed a maximum of 30 days, depending on the nature of work to be performed.”

The Metro Manila Council, composed of mayors of the National Capital Region, had earlier passed a resolution “(strongly recommending) all Local Legislative Councils of the NCR to issue ordinances for curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. subject to their necessary guidelines as they deem necessary.”

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority general manager Jojo Garcia had earlier said the enforcement of the region-wide curfew would depend on when the LGUs could pass their ordinances.

Garcia said the curfew would not cover all essential travel, including to and from a workplace.

Those who are out to buy food or medicine would also not be restricted from going out, according to Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.