First district representative Edgar Chatto is pushing for benefits or relief packages to be given to senior citizens and persons with disability (PWDs) who are living alone or don’t have companions in their respective abodes.
“Give special attention to senior citizens and persons with disabilities who live on their own,” Chatto said as he appealed to members of the House of the Representatives through Deputy House Speaker LRay Villafuerte.
In response to the continuing threat of the Covid pandemic, the chamber convened as a committee of the whole in a virtual session last Wednesday (June 3; 2020) and approved House Bill 6953.
The approved bill is a substitute measure for the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, which extends the effectivity of Republic Act 11649 or the Bayanihan Law until September 30, 2020.
Moreover, the proposed legislation seeks to allocate P162 billion for the continuation of Covid response measures, including emergency subsidy to low income families, households, and qualified beneficiaries of the Bayanihan Law.
In the new proposed measure, also features “Cash for Work” program, assistance to individuals in crisis situations, and even unemployment assistance.
Furthermore, Chatto requested for an amendment to the bill in order to give consideration especially to senior citizens and PWD who live independently as beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Fund (SAF).
The provision of SAF under the Bayanihan Law focused on families as recipients of the assistance. In effect, this excluded senior citizens and PWDs who live on their own as beneficiaries of the said program.
The first district solon said the senior citizens and PWD are among most displaced in the Covid crisis with no capability to earn a living amid the community quarantine situations.
At the onset of the pandemic, Chatto fully supported the swift passage of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.
He also pushed for the inclusion of frontline workers such as barangay officials, including barangay health workers, day care workers and barangay nutrition scholars.
In social amelioration programs, Chatto initiated the allocation of funds for programs to aid the most vulnerable sectors of society.
Meantime, Chatto coordinates with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the provision of food packs to families in island barangays of the first district.
Island barangays are most challenged even without the threat of Covid, with year-round weather disturbances, the island barangay residents’ situation worsened with quarantine restrictions as a result of the response to the Covid pandemic.
The situation, left little to no sustenance for fisherfolk, Chatto said.
The solon also extended personal support to medical and frontline workers as well as to stranded individuals and overseas Filipino workers through linkage so they can get assistance from the Provincial Government as well as from DSWD and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
Displaced workers due to Covid pandemic were provided temporary employment through his initiative called Tulong Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Chatto’s office had established a Help Desk and was restructured for Covid response, in coordination with the Provincial Government, local government units, and national agencies.