Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon reminded the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to prioritize barangay health workers and displaced workers in the hiring of 50,000 contact tracers in accordance with the provision of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act otherwise known as Bayanihan 2.
“We should give priority to our barangay health workers, civil society organizations and parent-leaders from the 4Ps. They are already organized and their familiarity with the communities will make contact tracing faster,” Drilon said.
Drilon introduced the provision in the law that mandates that contract tracing shall be immediately and properly traced through the use of efficient technology for data collection and analysis, and by engaging contact tracers that may include, but not limited to, displaced workers both in the formal and informal sectors, from existing networks of barangay health workers, parent-leaders from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), and members of duly accredited civil society organizations.”
“We proposed that provision in the Bayanihan 2 to boost our contact tracing capability. The newly-signed Bayanihan law made sure that the three T’s (test, trace and treatment) will have ample support and funding,” Drilon said.
Drilon said that the faster the contact tracing is done, the better our chance to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
He noted that there are 400 thousand barangay health workers and parent-leaders from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program who can do contract tracing with ease and efficiency.
“Since they are already organized, they can be quickly mobilized as contact tracers,” he added.
The government is now hiring additional 50,000 contract tracers, seven months into the pandemic, to beef up its present 97,000 contact tracers.
He said the hiring process alone takes time, one month being the fastest for it to be completed. Whereas when the DILG taps the barangay health workers, Drilon said they can just give additional allowance, thereby saving the government money and time.
“We can save time and resources if we give preference to them as contact tracers instead of creating a new army of contact tracers,” he said.
Drilon had earlier said that what the country needs is contact tracers not an army of political supporters nor trolls for the 2022 elections. (DILG)
