The Department of Agrarian Reform on Friday assured its 493 contractual employees that they will continue to receive their salary for the duration of the enhanced community quarantine.
Secretary John Castriciones said he has already directed Undersecretary for Finance Management and Administration Office Lucius Junjun Malsi to promptly prepare in advance their contracts so that they could receive their salary for their daily sustenance.
“We need to look after the welfare of the regular and contract of service personnel in the same footing,” he said.
The DAR chief earlier ordered the processing of payrolls of regular employees to allay apprehension among them over the enhanced community quarantine.
He said he is directing the whole operations of the department using available communication and social media platforms, specifically through online video conferencing, to address the plight of DAR employees and respond to issues and concerns of major stakeholders, the farmer-beneficiaries and the landowners as well.
He commended the skeletal staff manning key bureaus of the department, “braving various checkpoints just to serve their fellow employees and DAR clientele at the risk of their own life.”
The Luzon-wide lockdown due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused untold economic miseries to many families because of their inability to work and ply their trades, the department said.
Government employees, especially those under contracts of service, became apprehensive over whether they would continue receiving their salary until the government took notice of their plight, it added.
With the latest directive of Castriciones, those employees are now assured that necessary documents and payrolls are now being prepared for them to cope up with the seemingly unpredictable situation caused by the dreaded disease.