MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged several issues in the Department of Labor and Employment's (DOLE) Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program, despite meeting its target of providing temporary work to indigent individuals.
TUPAD, designed to offer emergency employment to marginalized workers, originated during the COVID-19 pandemic to address widespread job displacement. Its scope has since expanded to include other emergencies.
eneficiaries are eligible for employment lasting 10 to 90 days, with only one family member allowed to avail of the program every year, except in cases of natural or human-induced calamities.
Inadequate controls found. However, COA's 2023 audit report on TUPAD found that there were cases of beneficiaries availing twice within a year by using different names while changing contact details and addresses.
“Various beneficiaries availed the TUPAD program twice during the year using either their maiden names and married surnames but the same contact numbers and addresses; or different birthdates, misspelled names and numbers (mostly one letter/number was incorrect) but the same addresses,” state auditors said.
“The existing internal control features were not adequate to prevent and detect possible double or multiple availments of the program,” the report added.
The audit identified excessive payments amounting to ?4.9 million made to 887 beneficiaries, primarily in NCR, with additional cases in Regions I, II, and XI.
“We recommended and the management agreed to require the concerned offices to conduct further investigations and double availment totaling P4,909,335.00, provide justification/explanation and require the identified beneficiaries who double availed of the program to refund the overpayments of TUPAD wages, if necessary,” COA said.
Unqualified beneficiaries received millions in aid. State auditors also flagged the assistance granted to 613 unqualified beneficiaries, which cost P3.14 million. Of these, 609 were from Cagayan province and included non-residents, government employees, students, and individuals who did not render service—violations of the qualifications outlined in DOLE Department Order No. 239 s. 2023.
COA, upon verifying phone numbers by attempting to reach individuals supposedly behind them, found that beneficiaries were either incorrect or unreachable.
In Region X, four unqualified beneficiaries—barangay officials—received a total of ?14,600 in assistance despite being ineligible for the program.
Additionally, despite the presence of twice-availing beneficiaries and payments to unqualified beneficiaries, COA found that TUPAD had an unclaimed financial assistance totalling to P41.53 million.
While DOLE utilized ?15.38 billion (88.11%) of its ?18.01 billion budget for 2023 and employed 2.9 million beneficiaries, an unutilized balance of ?2.14 billion remained. Such unused budget, for example, could support more workers and advanced te program's goal of reducing poverty.
Employment context. The program, meanwhile, employed a total 2.9 million beneficiaries as the Philippines' September employment rate was at 96.3% and underemployment at 11.9%
The Philippines follows the International Labor Organization’s definition of an employed person, which states that if a person works at least one hour a week, they are counted as a worker.