Vice presidential aspirant and Davao City mayor Sara Duterte will push for better wages and benefits for barangay workers and volunteers if she becomes the second highest official in the land.

Duterte, Lakas-CMD chairperson, said she would pursue this by convincing Congress to pass a law that would grant better wages and benefits for the barangay workers who are considered the first line of defense of communities in the country.

She praised the barangay workers and volunteers, many of them given meager allowances for their work, for being the “first ones to help the city and municipal governments.” “Laging ang barangay volunteers natin ang tinatawag natin. It’s time po na pag-usapan sa kongreso na merong standardization sa pagpapasweldo ng ating barangay volunteers. (Barangay volunteers are the ones we always call. Its time for Congress to deliberate on providing standard salaries for our barangay volunteers.)” she said during Friday’s Metro Manila Virtual Caravan with her presidential running mate Bongbong Marcos.

Founder of the regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago and UniTeam runningmate of Marcos, Sara said despite the contributions of barangay volunteers in the implementation of government programs in the grassroots level, they are not well compensated.

“Ang ating mga BHWs (Barangay Health Workers) ay nakababad diyan sa mga tao, particularly na sa pagdadala ng mga health programs ng ating city health (at) municipal health office. (Our BHW are always of service to the people, particularly in delivering health programs of city and municipal health offices). ” she said.

Duterte, in her message, stressed that barangay workers and volunteers must not spend eight hours or more a day working.

“Ang volunteers sa amin sa Davao City not more than 2-3 hours a day ang trabaho. Ang nagyayari sa ating mga Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS), Barangay Health Worker (BHW) at Barangay Kagawad ay naging main work na nila yung pagiging volunteer. In that case, hindi na po sila dapat tawaging volunteers but dapat meron na po talaga silang standard na sweldo na tinatanggap. (Davao City volunteers work no more than 2 to three hours. What is happening is that our BNS, BHW and village councilman have made volunteerism their main job). ”said Duterte.

She also said government should look into mechanisms to justly compensate the volunteers for the tasks they perform.