INDIGENTS, students, barangay workers, patients and media members are among those who stand to benefit from the priority measures that incoming Senator Erwin Tulfo have lined up and will work on introducing, once he assumes office on June 30.
During his guesting at the “MACHRA Balitaan” held by the Manila City Hall Reporters’ Association at the Harbor View Restaurant in Ermita, Tulfo said that he will seek the help of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DWSD) which he used to head and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), to provide student emergency cash assistance for university students, possibly including those from senior high who hail from the provinces and study in the metro.
Citing his own experience, Tulfo notes that such students experience problems when they encounter delays from their parents’ financial support to cover payment for their dorms or sudden contributions like for field trips, projects and the like or if they need to go home for emergency situations.
A former media member himself, Tulfo said he also intends to dig into the status of the magna carta for tri-media workers and push for benefits, payment of retirement and decent pay, especially for correspondents by giving them basic allowance or salary.
Tulfo said he will also seek to to give back to the National Food Authority (NFA) the task of buying grains and rice and sell them at the price favorable to farmers which he said can be done through government subsidy.
With regard the universal health care law, Tulfo vowed to push for an expansion of Philhealth coverage, saying the list of medical cases covered does not cover many kinds of emergency situations. He said Philhealth must cover at least 50 percent of its members’ hospital bills and they must also be accomodated and given rooms in private hospitals.
Meanwhile, Tulfo also said he would seek for the inclusion of those from the middle class and lower middle class in the provision of ‘ayuda’ from government, noting that the AICS, 4PS, TUPAD and AKAP usually covers the indigents only.
It was learned that the senator already pitched the idea when he was a Congressman, stressing that the funds that go to the said programs come from the taxes that are remitted by those from the middle and lower middle classes.
Tulfo likewise committed to push for the standardization of basic salaries for barangay and health workers, citing a huge disparity between the salaries of those from the metro and provinces, even if the prices of commodities in both are just the same.
He lamented that some barangay tanods in far-flung areas get only P100 a month that they resort to becoming STL or jueteng collectors to earn extra.
