by Miriam G. Desacada
Tacloban City-‘At least 250,000 residents from various parts of Eastern Visayas region gathered at the Leyte Sports Center in Tacloban City for the 2nd Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF) from August 2 to 3.
The two-day event was the biggest BPSF ever held in Tacloban City where the program—a brainchild of President Ferdinand—of bringing the government closer to the people was being carried out in the form of providing services and distributing cash aid and other forms of assistance to them.
More than a hundred congressmen attended the event also in support of Speaker Martin Romualdez, chief implementor of the BPSF in Tacloban, which incidentally coincided with the program’s first year anniversary.
The big crowd of beneficiaries received cash assistance, livelihood tools, and other forms of government services, which the Speaker said amounted to more than P1 billion in funds.
“This is really the essence of the Bagong Pilipinas campaign of our President — to bring government services to the people,” Romualdez told the crowd, as he vowed to bring BPSF to other provinces and key areas in the country’s other regions.
Romualdez, in a huddle with local reporters, bared that the BPSF event also allowed the congressmen to oversee the actual utilization of the funds allocated exclusively for the program. “We in Congress can check if the implementation of the program is good,” he said.
BPSF events have been intended to be held in other provinces, similarly involving all national government agencies rendering direct services to identified beneficiaries.
Among the services extended were from the DSWD delivering cash payouts to thousands of beneficiaries of the AICS (Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation) Program, an aid for education, medical, burial, transportation, and food for those experiencing crisis, disaster, and extreme poverty.
Another DSWD program carried out was the AKAP (Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program), formulated to assist the poor sector experiencing economic difficulties due to their very low income. Beneficiaries of AKAP also received five kilos of rice each during the BPSF event.
Rogelio Acebedo, who was among the AKAP beneficiaries, shared to reporters his gratitude to the Marcos administration for such a highly beneficial BPSF program, saying this was a truly huge help to his family undergoing crisis in their life.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) conducted cash aid payouts to hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries under TUPAD (Tulong Panghanapbuhay Sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers Program), which is a community-based program providing temporary employment to workers from the informal sectors who are underemployed, self-employed or displaced due to crisis or disaster.
There were also other programs from the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), including livelihood assistance and opportunities for various sectors of eligible clients across Eastern Visayas.
Other government services such as from the Philippine Statistics Authority, and the Land Transportation Office, among many others, were conducted at the People’s Center and Astrodome at the downtown area of the city.
Representative Jude Acidre of Tingog partylist, in a statement during the BPSF press conference, said Congress must work harder, as Speaker Romualdez and President Marcos are determined to realize their promises of taking good care of Filipinos for their needs amid the various calamities and economic hardship they are suffering from. —-Miriam G. Desacada