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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
1st Regular Session 
House Bill No. ________ 
Introduced by Representatives ERIC G. YAP, EDVIC G. YAP, JOCELYN P. 
TULFO, RALPH TULFO, and JEFFREY SORIANO 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
During the pandemic, it was reiterated that protecting every Filipino's health and 
well-being is as vital as ensuring their livelihood and jobs. Through the government's 
efforts, thousands of families received financial and livelihood assistance which seeks 
to cushion the detrimental effects brought about by the global crisis. One of the focal 
programs intensely reinforced is the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating 
Disadvantaged / Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program of the Department of Labor 
and Employment (DOLE) which provides immediate income relief to those who live 
in communities under quarantine / lockdown. 
 Implemented in 2010, the TUPAD program provides assistance in terms of 
emergency employment for displaced workers, underemployed, and seasonal 
workers for a minimum period of ten (10) days, but not to exceed a maximum of thirty 
(30) days, depending on the nature of work to be performed. The work includes
engagement in community projects, such as eco-tourism, repair and / or
improvement of common public facilities, de-clogging of canals, debris clearing, basic
repair of public infrastructure, repair and / or rehabilitation of farm-to-market roads
and similar facilities, tree planting, seedling preparation, and other similar activities.
This bill seeks to institutionalize the TUPAD program, providing for a wage 
employment assistance to the displaced and / or vulnerable workers. Its target 
beneficiaries include workers affected by disasters, epidemics/outbreaks, pandemics, 
August 30, 2022
9:29 am
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public health emergencies, war, armed conflict, crises, economic shocks, or income 
loss brought about by ill-health, disability, work-related accidents or injuries, 
unemployment, work displacements due to business closure, retrenchment, 
rightsizing, redundancy technological advances, and other analogous causes. 
In view of the foregoing, approval of this bill is earnestly sought. 
ERIC G. YAP 
JOCELYN P. TULFO 
       EDVIC G. YAP 
            RALPH TULFO 
  JEFFREY SORIANO 


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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
1st Regular Session 
House Bill No. ________ 
Introduced by Representatives ERIC G. YAP, EDVIC G. YAP, JOCELYN P. 
TULFO, RALPH TULFO, and JEFFREY SORIANO 
AN ACT 
PROVIDING FOR A WAGE EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM FOR 
DISPLACED AND / OR VULNERABLE WORKERS INSTITUTIONALIZING FOR 
THE 
PURPOSE 
THE 
TULONG 
PANGHANAPBUHAY 
SA 
ATING 
DISADVANTAGED / DISPLACED WORKERS (TUPAD) PROGRAM OF THE 
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT, APPROPRIATING FUNDS 
THEREFOR AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES 
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of the Representatives of the Philippines in 
Congress assembled:  
SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the “TUPAD Act”. 
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policies. - The State shall promote a just and dynamic 
social order that will ensure the prosperity and independence of the nation and free 
the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, 
promote full employment, a rising standard of living, and an improved quality of life 
for all.  
It shall improve the quality of life of all Filipino workers through active labor 
market policies, promoting and facilitating employment generation, human resource 
development, and by providing displaced and/or disadvantaged workers a social 
safety net from the effects of disasters, epidemic/outbreaks, pandemics, public health 
emergencies, war, armed conflict, crises, economic shocks or income loss brought 
about by ill-health, disability, work-related injury, unemployment, work 
displacements, and other related contingencies. 
SEC. 3. Coverage. - This Act shall cover all displaced and/or vulnerable 
workers affected by disasters, epidemics/outbreaks, pandemics, public health 
emergencies, war, armed conflict, crises, economic shocks, or income loss brought 
about by ill-health, disability, work-related accidents or injuries, unemployment, 
work displacements due to business closure, retrenchment, rightsizing, redundancy 
technological advances, and other analogous causes.  
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SEC. 4. Definition of Terms. - As used in this Act: 
 
a. “Accredited Co-Partner” refers to the program partner, which may be a peoples’ 
or workers organization, union, association, federation, cooperative, business 
association, church-based organization, educational institution, or private 
foundation, that has been accredited by the Department of Labor and 
Employment (DOLE) to implement TUPAD programs and projects using 
government or public funds; 
 
b. “Beneficiary” refers to individuals or group of individuals who are qualified 
recipients of assistance under TUPAD; 
 
c. “Disaster” refers to a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a 
society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental 
losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or 
society to cope using its own resources, as defined in Republic Act No. 10121 
otherwise known as the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management 
Act of 2010; 
 
d. “DOLE or Department” refers to the Department of Labor and Employment; 
 
e. “Displaced workers” refer to workers in the formal and informal economy or self-
employed, 
whether 
overseas 
or 
local, 
who 
became 
unemployed, 
underemployed, 
or 
have 
lost 
their 
livelihood 
due 
to 
disasters, 
epidemics/outbreaks, pandemics, public health emergencies, war, armed 
conflict, crises, economic shocks, or income loss brought about by ill-health, 
disability, work-related accidents or injuries, business closure, retrenchment, 
rightsizing, redundancy, technological advances, and other analogous adverse 
events as may be determined by the DOLE; 
 
f. “Massive Displacement” refers to large-scale displacement of workers in the 
formal and informal sectors brought about by disasters, epidemics/outbreaks, 
pandemics, public health emergencies, war, armed conflict, crises, economic 
shocks, among others, resulting in serious disruption of means of livelihood; 
 
g. “Micro-insurance” refers to a scheme that provides specific insurance and 
similar products and services that meet the needs of the low-income sector for 
risk protection and relief against distress, misfortune, and other contingent 
events; 
 
h. “Self-employed” refers to individuals who create their own earnings and 
opportunities in the form of business, contract work, whether overseas or local, 
or freelance activities; 
 
i. “Sub-professionals” refer to individuals who hold first level positions under the 
Revised Administrative Code of 1987, which includes the clerical, trades, crafts, 
and custodial service positions requiring less than four (4) years of collegiate 
studies; 


 
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j. “TESDA” refers to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority; 
 
k. “TUPAD Program” is a safety net wage employment assistance program for 
displaced and/or vulnerable workers also known as the Tulong 
Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged / Displaced Workers Program, and 
herein interchangeably referred to as TUPAD or Program; 
 
l. “Underemployed workers” refer to employed persons who express the desire to 
have additional hours of work in their present job or an additional job, or have 
a new job with longer working hours; 
 
m. “Vulnerable workers” refer to minimum wage earners, working poor, or 
marginalized workers, as defined below, whether in an employer-employee 
relationship in the public or private sector, or self-employed including the 
Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), and whose families depend solely on their 
wages or compensation income for their minimum basic needs, such as food, 
health, education, housing, and other essential amenities of life; 
 
1. Minimum wage earners refer to workers in the private sector who are paid 
the statutory minimum wage, or to employees in the public sector with 
compensation income of not more than the statutory minimum wage in the 
non-agricultural sector where he/she is assigned as defined under Republic 
Act No. 10963 otherwise known as the TRAIN law; 
2. Working poor refers to individuals and/or groups whose income fall below 
the poverty threshold as defined by the National Economic and 
Development Authority (NEDA) and/or cannot afford in a sustained
 
manner to provide their minimum basic needs of food, health, 
education, housing, and other essential amenities of life; 
3. Marginalized workers refer to workers who have not benefited from 
education, health, employment, and other opportunities by reasons of 
poverty, geographical inaccessibility, culture, gender, among others, and to 
workers who are less likely to have formal work arrangements, and are 
more likely to lack decent working conditions, adequate social security, and 
whose employment is characterized by inadequate earnings, low 
productivity, and difficult conditions of work that undermine their 
fundamental rights; 
 
n. “Wage employment” refers to the act of generating one’s income from an 
employer-employee relationship. 
 
Article II 
Wage Employment Assistance Program for Displaced and/or Vulnerable Workers 
or TUPAD Program 
 
 
SEC. 5. Wage Employment Assistance Program for Displaced and/or 
vulnerable Workers or TUPAD Program. - The TUPAD Program is a social safety net 
designed to assist displaced and/or vulnerable workers and their families, and get 


 
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them back on their feet by providing them wage employment if they fall on hard times 
due to disasters, epidemics, war, armed conflict, crises, economic shocks, or income 
loss by ill-health, disability, work-related injury, unemployment, work displacements 
due to business closure, retrenchment, rightsizing, redundancy technological 
advances, and other analogous causes. For this purpose, the TUPAD Program being 
implemented by the DOLE providing emergency employment for displaced or 
disadvantaged workers is hereby institutionalized.  
 
SEC. 6. Lead Agency and Convergence with Related Government Assistance 
Program. - The Department shall be the lead agency in the implementation of the 
TUPAD Program and shall proactively administer directly, motu proprio, wage 
employment projects, in coordination or collaboration with relevant government 
agencies, in the event of massive displacement of workers resulting in serious 
disruption of means of livelihood. 
 
 
The Department shall be responsible for the administration, sourcing, 
assessment, and approval of all project proposals for appropriate funding using 
TUPAD funds. It shall integrate and collaborate with other government agencies, 
business and labor groups, and civil society groups in implementing similar or related 
programs and services for efficient and effective whole-of-nation approach in the 
delivery of social safety nets. 
 
 
SEC. 7. Eligible Projects for TUPAD; No Counterpart Funding Requirement. - 
All employment projects, to be eligible for funding under TUPAD, shall be under any 
of the listed eligible projects below. The Department shall set the period of work to be 
performed, but in no case shall the project duration be less than ten (10) days, nor to 
exceed ninety (90) days, as provided herein: 
 
Eligible Projects 
Maximum No. of Working Days 
a. Light works, such as street sweeping 
and cleaning of public facilities. 
15 
b. Social community projects such as de-
clogging of canals, debris 
clearing/segregation and materials 
recovery, stockpiling and clearing at the 
aftermath of calamity or disaster. 
45 
c. Social community projects such as 
minor repair and maintenance of 
common public facilities such as schools 
and health centers. 
60 
d. Government projects requiring 
improvement of government facilities 
and infrastructures such as health 
centers, irrigation canals, roads, 
90 


 
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evacuation centers, school buildings, 
and the like. 
e. Economic Community projects such as 
maintenance and/or rehabilitation of 
farm-to-market roads, bridges, post-
harvest facilities, public markets, and 
common public facilities such as 
production and display centers, fish 
ports, etc.  
f. Agro-Forestry and eco-agriculture 
farming which include tree-planting, 
seedling preparation, re-forestation and 
crop growing. 
g. Field works, such as conduct of survey 
and profiling, in partnership with other 
government offices. 
 
 
No counterpart funding shall be required in the implementation of the project 
from the Local Government Units (LGUs) or any of DOLE’S accredited program 
partners. However, they shall provide technical assistance, which could be in the form 
of identification of projects, profiling of beneficiaries, procurement, monitoring, and 
facilitating access of services from other agencies. 
 
 
TUPAD projects involving 46-90-day period of work shall be implemented in 
partnership and/or complementation with agencies implementing public projects, 
such as the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of 
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Local Government Units (LGUs), as 
well as private sector entities to engage in public projects. Said offices/program 
partners shall provide the required materials, tools, and equipment including office 
equipment, as warranted by the nature of work. 
 
 
SEC. 8. Qualified Beneficiaries. - All displaced workers and/or vulnerable 
workers are qualified beneficiaries under this Act; Provided, that the Secretary of 
Labor, may, in proper instances, also approve programs under the TUPAD Program 
that will include the underemployed including sub-professionals involved in 
structured work in support of office operations or those engaged in arts, crafts, 
manual, and clerical work, as beneficiaries under this Act. 
 
The Secretary of DOLE shall set standards on the TUPAD beneficiaries, 
including the allowable number of beneficiaries per household, the number of projects 
under the Program a qualified beneficiary may participate in, and such other relevant 
matters for the effective implementation of this Act, with a view to helping the most 
number of beneficiaries. 
 
 


 
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SEC. 9. Modes of Implementation of the TUPAD Program. - The TUPAD 
Program shall be implemented by the DOLE Regional Offices through any of the 
following modes: 
 
a. Accredited Co-Partner (ACP). Under this mode, the ACP shall be the 
Department’s partner or conduit in the implementation of the program; 
Provided, that they are registered with any registering body of the 
government and accredited by DOLE as ACP under the TUPAD Program. 
The following shall qualify as ACP: 
 
1. People’s Organization; 
2. Private sector unions, federations, or workers' associations, as defined 
in Book V of the Omnibus Rules and Regulations Implementing the 
Labor Code of the Philippines; 
3. Cooperatives; 
4. Church-based organizations; 
5. Private educational institutions; 
6. Private foundations; and 
7. Government agencies and instrumentalities, including National 
Government Agencies, Local Government Units and Government 
Owned and Controlled Corporations. 
 
b. Direct Administration.  Under this, the administration and implementation 
of the TUPAD Program shall be undertaken directly by the Department’s 
regional provincial and/or field offices. 
 
SEC. 10. Accreditation of Co-Partners (ACP). - The DOLE shall accredit the 
co-partners in the implementation of the TUPAD Program, and for this purpose, shall 
set the guidelines for the accreditation process. 
 
Government agencies, including local government units (LGUs) and state 
university and colleges (SUCs), shall automatically be TUPAD program partners, 
without need of accreditation, upon execution of a TUPAD Partnership Memorandum 
of Agreement, clearly outlining the responsibilities and deliverables of each party 
under the program.  
 
 
SEC. 11. Employment Project Implementation Requirements. - All programs 
under the TUPAD Program shall observe the following: 
 
a. Strict compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Standards 
provided under Republic Act No. 11058 and other related laws and 
regulations; 
 
b. Provision of necessary equipment for beneficiaries needed to participate in 
a project effectively and safely under the Program; 
 
c. Enrollment of every beneficiary to a group micro-insurance to be included 
in the total project cost; 


 
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d. Issuance of an identification card or document for every beneficiary 
participating in a project under the Program; 
 
e. Assistance to beneficiaries who have participated in the Program of skill 
training or upgrading towards self-employment or wage employment. For 
this purpose, the Department and TESDA shall ensure the implementation 
and enforcement of this provision; 
 
f. Mechanisms to ensure that the Department and/or its accredited co-
partners monitor the implementation of every employment project under 
the TUPAD Program; and 
 
g. Submission of proper documentary requirements for the release and 
liquidation of funds for every employment project under the TUPAD 
Program subject to relevant accounting and auditing rules and regulations. 
 
 
SEC. 12. Wages and Compensations of Beneficiaries; Prohibited Practices. - 
The wages and compensation of the beneficiaries shall not be less than 100% of the 
prevailing private sector minimum wage rate set by the Regional Tripartite Wages 
and Productivity Board (RTWPB) for non-agricultural workers in the area or locality 
where the project will be implemented. 
 
 
To ensure compliance with this provision, the Department shall establish 
mechanisms for its strict implementation, providing safeguards and a listing of 
prohibited activities such as cuts for commission, job sharing, ghost beneficiaries, and 
padding of beneficiaries, among others.  
 
 
Any violation of this provision shall result in the blacklisting of the accredited 
co-partner, including the payment if the amount involved, with legal interest, without 
prejudice to the filing of criminal cases. If the accredited co-partner is an LGU or SUC, 
the LGU or SUC shall immediately address such deficiency and/or error, without 
prejudice to applicable rules and regulations of the Commission on Audit, and the 
filing of civil, criminal or administration actions. In case of direct administration, the 
responsible DOLE personnel shall be subjected to administrative investigation, 
without prejudice to the filing of appropriate civil or criminal case. 
 
 
SEC. 13. Project Funding. - Approved employment project proposals shall be 
funded under the TUPAD Program fund under the budget of the DOLE. 
 
 
The Department shall be primarily responsible for managing the funds for the 
implementation of the Program.  
 
 
SEC. 14. Authority to Receive and Administer Donations for TUPAD Program. 
- The Department is hereby authorized under this Act to receive donations from 
government and non-government organizations and to administer the same strictly 
and exclusively for the beneficiaries and qualified applicants of the TUPAD Program, 
subject to relevant accounting and auditing rules and regulations.  


 
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SEC. 15. Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation of the TUPAD Program. - The 
Department shall establish a standardized monitoring and reporting system to 
properly document every approved project under the Program. 
 
 
It shall also submit to Congress and make available to the public, an annual 
accomplishment report and utilization of the funds earmarked for the implementation 
of the TUPAD Program. The annual report shall include the pertinent details of every 
project under the Program, the mode of implementation, number of beneficiaries, 
donations from private and other organizations, expenditures, number of 
beneficiaries who acquired employment after their participation in the Program, and 
other pertinent information as may be necessary. An impact evaluation shall be 
conducted from time to time, but not later than every three years. 
 
Article III 
Miscellaneous Provisions 
 
 
SEC. 16. Appropriations. - The funds for the initial implementation of this Act 
shall be sourced from the current budget of the Department for the implementation of 
the TUPAD Program. Thereafter, the amount necessary for its continued 
implementation shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act; Provided, 
that such appropriation shall take into consideration an administration fee of not more 
than 5%.  
 
 
SEC. 17. Implementing Rules and Regulations - Within ninety (90) days from 
the effectivity of this Act, the DOLE shall, in consultation with TESDA, Department 
of Trade and Industry, and other relevant government agencies and stakeholders, 
issue the necessary rules and regulations for the effective implementation of this Act. 
 
 
SEC. 18. Separability Clause. - Any portion or provision of this Act that is 
declared unconstitutional or invalid shall not have the effect of nullifying other 
portions or provisions hereof as long as such remaining portions can still subsist and 
be given effect in their entirety.  
 
 
SEC. 19. Repealing Clause. - All laws, ordinances, rules, regulations, other 
issuances, or parts thereof, which are inconsistent with this Act, are hereby repealed 
or modified accordingly. Nothing in this Act shall result in the diminution of the 
benefits and/or assistance given to overseas Filipinos and migrant workers as 
provided in other laws, ordinances, rules, regulations, and issuances.  
 
 
SEC. 20. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15 days) after its 
completed publication in at least (2) newspapers of general circulation or in the Official 
Gazette. 
 
Approved,