The Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer (PSWDO) Carmelita Tecson reveals that 808 members of the tourist transport group receive rice support from the provincial government of Bohol (PGBh).

This is the revelation made by Tecson in a radio interview on Open Forum over dyTR, hosted by The Bohol Tribune’s managing editor Ardy Batoy and associate editor Dave Albarado on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020.

She said that the PGBh has completed the distribution of the rice support. The rice support from the PGBh given to tourism-affiliated workers is a special rice pack weighing 10 kilos each.

The distribution of the rice packs to each beneficiary in the tourism-affiliated transport workers happened on Sept. 25, 2020, Tecson said in the radio interview.

When asked if there is a possibility of adding more names from the tourist transport industry to the list of beneficiaries, Tecson replied in the affirmative. She said that there are names that have been reportedly left out. She, however, assured persons in the tourism transport industry who were left out in the first wave of rice support distribution that they will be considered in subsequent rice support distribution.

Moreover, Tecson said that PGBh’s program for tourism-affiliated workers is not only for those who are working in the transport sector, but extends to other workers in the tourism industry affected by the slowdown of the local tourism industry due to the pandemic.

Furthermore, Tecson said that her office already identified at least 12,000 persons working in the tourism industry in Bohol who are beneficiaries of the rice support program of the PGBh.

It can be remembered that on August 26, 2020, the provincial government procured 7,185 sacks of rice and paid P8.7 million in cash.