Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian clarified on Wednesday the recent post of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, regarding her social media post on the success of reaching out to Aetas in the community through the agency's Oplan Pag-abot Program.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Guo said the local government of Bamban became a part of DSWD's Oplan Pag-abot, which conducted livelihood assistance grants and turnovers of farming carabaos to the Aetas living in Barangay Sto. Niño, Bamban Tarlac.
Gatchalian said the success of the recent program was made possible by "DSWD's hard-working Oplan Pag-abot Social Workers and Community Development Workers."
"After our Social workers reached out to the Aeta communities living in the streets of NCR last Christmas and brought them home to Tarlac, they initiated a community-driven needs assessment to give economic enterprise to the said Aeta community (and hopefully keep them off the streets of the city and help them thrive in their provincial communities)," said Gatchalian in a Facebook post with attached screenshot of Guo's post.
Gatchalian noted that only Tarlac Governor Susan Yap helped them execute the program without the participation of Guo.
