WITH Judy Taguiwalo rejected by the Commission on Appointments as head of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the next DSWD secretary should be in the mold of the 10 women who had held that post since 1986.
"There's a high bar to be met in choosing the head of an agency that helps those who have fallen through the cracks of society," he said.
If tradition is to be followed, Recto said that DSWD has always been run by women with the head and the heart to lead a frontline agency.
The women who previously served at the helm of DSWD are Mita Pardo de Tavera, Corazon Alma de Leon, Lilian Laigo, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Dulce Saguisag, Corazon Soliman, Luwalhati Pablo, Esperanza Cabral, and Celia Yangco.
"All were hard working professionals," he said.
Recto further said DSWD's expanded mandate has put the qualification standard a notch higher saying the magnitude of programs leaves no room for an on-the-job training to take over Taguiwalo's seat.
Noting that one in five Filipinos today is a recipient of DSWD assistance, Recto further said that 28.29 million Filipinos are regular beneficiaries of welfare and development programs of the DSWD.
DSWD has 201,000 war evacuees to attend to in Marawi, a first responder to calamities, whether natural, like a typhoon, or man-made, like fires.
"This year DSWD has budget to attend to the needs of 346,000 of them," he said.
Recto said the DSWD maintains the country's biggest payroll with its mega-billion cash transfer programs benefitting some 4.4 million families or about 19.360 million individuals and almost three million senior citizens receive P500 a month under the Social Pension for Indigents Program.
DSWD, said Recto, is like a big catering operation serving one nutritious meal a day to 1.746 million kids for 120 days.
"That would be 209 million kiddie meals served in a year," Recto said, adding that DSWD also runs orphanages, halfway houses for women in distress, old age homes with a projected total clientele of 410,000 including individuals in emergency situations in need of assistance.
Through Kalahi-CIDSS, DSWD funds and incubates entrepreneurship programs, and implements small community infrastructure programs. Some 1.540 million are enrolled in its various livelihood programs.
"With more programs, comes a bigger budget. No longer a cellar dweller in the national budget, the agency has pole-vaulted to the circle of Top 5 recipients with a budget of P128 billion this year," Recto said.
Recto further said that the budget of some of its programs dwarfs those of other departments with 4Ps with a 2017 budget of P78.186 billion; the pension for seniors, P17.940 billion; children’s feeding, P4.427billion.
Recto said that all of these are being managed by a relatively small crew of 2,800 regular DSWD employees, which is 1/28th the size of the Department of Education workforce with a pool of 25,200 contractual employees backup.
"These are the programs that await the incoming DSWD secretary. Clearly, it is not for the faint of heart. Those with no organizational experience need not apply," he said. (SunStar Philippines)