Three-term Senator and Deputy Speaker, Loren Legarda, today called for more budgetary support for livelihood programs of the government for the marginalized sectors amid this pandemic.
Legarda, principal sponsor and co-author of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Law, has been supportive of the government programs focusing on sustainable livelihood such as the Shared Services Facilities (SSF) of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Pangkabuhayan Program and Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Community Empowerment through Science and Technology (CEST) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) since her stint as the Chairperson of Senate Committee on Finance.
The SSF, a major component of the MSME development program of the DTI, seeks to improve their competitiveness by providing them with machinery, equipment, tools, systems, skills and knowledge under a shared system.
In the province of Antique, represented by Deputy Speaker Legarda in the House of Representatives, 67 SSF projects were approved through the initiative and funding support of Legarda. Among these projects are SSF on salt making, food and fish processing, handicrafts making, loomweaving, pottery making, muscovado, agri products, among others.
“We have to look deeper into the situation of our people in the marginalized sector. We have to empower them through providing sustainable livelihood that will give them economic empowerment and financial stability especially during these trying times,” Legarda stated.
Through Legarda’s initiative, and in partnership with the DTI, the Samahan ng mga Pilipina para sa Reporma at Kaunlaran (SPARK) Philippines was able to establish two DTI SSFs that housed a number of high-powered sewing machines with the support of the Quezon City LGU in barangays Greater Lagro and Sto. Cristo. Each of the two SSFs is now generating a combined income of P3-million and is now a cooperative and manufacturer of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).
Also recently, two women organizations whom Legarda met in an event organized by UN Women in March this year, the Alyansa ng mga Nakakatandang Komunidad, Inc. (ANAK) and Development Action for Women Network, Inc. (DAWN), received livelihood assistance from DOLE Pangkabuhayan to help expand their Food Bank Project and for the sewing & pattern making livelihood project, respectively.
Legarda also partnered with the DOST and the University of Antique in her home province in initiating, funding and launching the CEST program to provide comprehensive technical services and processing equipment to UA and selected barangays in the municipalities of Antique to engage in fish and niche-food processing. Livelihood projects were also started by different groups such as the production and processing of peanut, cacao, high value crops, root crops, and vegetables, and ice cream production.
“Aside from strengthening our budgetary support for these programs, we also need the cooperation and collaboration of national government agencies, LGUs, private sector and the academe to deliver more effective and research-based livelihood programs to our communities,” Legarda concluded.