THE INCOMING chief of the state’s social welfare agency on Tuesday said he would work closely with communities that need more help from the government.
Broadcaster Erwin T. Tulfo, who is set to head the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), said he would become “a secretary on the ground.”
“I will be a secretary people can touch, people can talk to,” he told ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo. “I think I have to be on the ground just to assure that I am here. The government is here. The government is watching…helping.”
Mr. Tulfo said fellow journalists and media practitioners may call him out on issues concerning the department’s efficiency once he assumes leadership.
The media personality had earlier berated outgoing DSWD chief Rolando D. Bautista for not granting his request for a live interview.
“Definitely, we’ll be working hand in hand with the media people because they’re the ones on the ground,” Mr. Tulfo said. “So, I would need their help.”
Mr. Tulfo, meanwhile, said he would ask the presidential palace’s communications team for a weekly one-hour radio and TV program to discuss DSWD projects and programs and to give people an avenue to convey their problems.
“We need to have programs like this on radio, TV, social media so that we would also hear their side.”
Mr. Tulfo had worked as a broadcaster at state-run People’s Television Network and as news anchor at a privately-owned mainstream media network.
He had hosted shows produced by his brother, who owns a television production outfit known for its public service programs that had been criticized by rights defenders and lawyers for supposedly circumventing legal processes.
Mr. Tulfo is one of the brothers of Raffy T. Tulfo, who secured a Senate seat in the May 9 polls, and former tourism secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo.
He is chairman of party-list ACT-CIS, or the Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement Support, which won three seats in the incoming House of Representatives. His wife, Jocelyn P. Tulfo, is one of the group’s nominees. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
