Las Piñas boosts welfare program

To cushion the impact of economic instability on the everyday life of city residents, Las Piñas Mayor Imelda Aguilar strengthened her administration’s welfare program.

Included in the welfare program package are free hospitalization, free college education to poor students, free day-care education, burial assistance packages and free child delivery.

The program also provides free manpower skills training and provision of livelihood assistance and training to women. Just recently, the city social welfare office completed a reflexology training seminar.

Aguilar vowed not to compromise any of its welfare programs despite the limited budget of the city government. Instead, she further strengthened it so that more residents will benefit.

"Though our budget is small compared to other cities in Metro Manila, we were able to provide the basic services for the city residents because it is my paramount concern, especially now, that our economy is in the downtrend and prices of basic goods and services are skyrocketing," Aguilar explained.

For the free hospitalization alone, Aguilar said, more than 46,000 residents have been provided the "green" (health) card to avail of the benefit.

At the same time, City Treasurer Rizal del Rosario reported that the city government had allocated sufficient funds to all its services and projects and assured the local chief executive that the budget is enough to sustain the programs and projects for the succeeding year.

The mayor also reminded all department heads and employees to continuously observe her earlier order to adopt austerity measures in an effort to give unhampered delivery of services and implementation of welfare programs.

She pointed out that savings from minimized electricity consumption and prudent use of office supplies are vital to ensure unhampered delivery of basic services.

Meanwhile, Aguilar also directed the city government’s Public Employment and Services Office (PESO) to intensify its "Mamamayan Muna" job program to help residents find gainful employment by enlisting the support of the business community based in the city.