By Earl Jed Roque/PNA
MANILA – Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) chairman Alvin Feliciano welcomed the benefits of President Rodrigo Duterte’s move to transfer the agency’s supervision from the Office of the Cabinet Secretary to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Wednesday, Feliciano said the transfer will integrate PCUP’s proactive efforts to help the urban poor with the social welfare programs of the DSWD.
“Malaki ang pondo ng DSWD, so may mga programa ang DSWD na pangmahirap na kailangan nila ang PCUP to implement it. With the positive response of (DSWD) Sec. (Rolando) Bautista, willing siyang tulungan ang PCUP sa pagtulong dahil wala naman talaga kaming pondo (DSWD has a huge fund, PCUP is needed to implement some of its programs for the poor. With the positive response of DSWD Sec. Rolando Bautista, he is willing to help the PCUP because we don’t really have adequate funds),” he said.
Feliciano said the main mandate of the PCUP is to coordinate with government agencies for better delivery of services to the urban poor.
DSWD, he said, agreed to provide spaces for PCUP area coordinators in their regional and provincial offices, since PCUP coordinators do not presently have any physical offices due to the agency’s lack of funds.
“Para magkaroon ng personality, magkaroon ng legalidad, magkaroon ng pagkatao yung aming mga tao sa field na nasa isang opisina talaga being a part of the DSWD family (Providing spaces for our personnel will create a personality and legality for our people in the field to be part of the DSWD family),” Feliciano said.
Aside from PCUP, Duterte’s Executive Order (EO) 67 also transferred the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to the DSWD.
In the same EO, the supervision of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Cooperative Development Authority were transferred to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), while the supervision of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, Philippine Commission on Women, and the National Youth Commission (NYC) were transferred to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Aside from EO 67, Feliciano also mentioned measures in the Senate and the House of Representatives to make PCUP a regular commission, renaming it as the National Commission for the Urban Poor (NCUP), as one of the efforts to institutionalize PCUP’s programs even after President Duterte’s term.
“As of now, ang PCUP ay produkto lang ng executive order, so kami mismo wala kaming kasiguraduhan sa aming opisina. Kapag sinabi ng Presidente na tapos na kayo, tapos na. (As of now, the PCUP is just a product of an executive order, even us have no certainties in the offices we hold. If the President says our job is done, we are done),” he said.
Feliciano expressed hope that the bill will be passed before the 2019 elections.
