The Senate’s first public hearing on the proposed lifting of the protectionist provisions of the Constitution this Wednesday is a big leap to make the 1987 Constitution responsive to the current needs of the country, according to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Constitutional Reform (IATF-CORE) headed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

The IATF-CORE lauded the Senate’s decision to tackle pending proposals to amend certain provisions in the 1987 Constitution as proposed by Senators Tolentino, de la Rosa, and Gordon.

“The start of public hearings in the Senate is an important step in revisiting the provisions of the Charter and make it more responsive to our...

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) extended anew the deadline of the Road Clearing Operation 2.0 (RCO 2.0) to February 15 in consideration of the need of local government units’ (LGUs’) to immediately prepare their local vaccination plans against COVID-19.

The DILG recently issued Memorandum No. 2021-007 tasking LGUs to come up with a local vaccination plan that contains the preparation of risk communication plans and conduct of early vaccine communication campaign to disseminate critical information on COVID-19 vaccination.

The plan must also include a master list of priority eligible vaccinee population; identification of possible vaccine centers, available cold...

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) supports the recent act of the Department of National Defense (DND) abrogating the 1989 University of the Philippines (UP)-DND accord.

DILG Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Usec. Bernardo Florece said that “The agreement has become obsolete and no longer attuned to the times. It was signed way back in 1989, three years after the end of the Marcos dictatorship. The times have changed. The conditions have changed.”

Florece agreed with the DND of the ongoing clandestine recruitment inside UP campuses by the CPP/NPA/NDF through its various front organizations and that the agreement is being used by the Communist Terrorist Groups (CTGs) to...

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) urged all local government units (LGUs) to prepare a local vaccination plan as provided in the DOH guidelines on the National Vaccination Program and coordinate closely with their respective DOH-Centers for Health Development in preparing this plan.

DILG Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said that the DILG has issued Memorandum No. 2021-007 where LGUs are directed to come up with a vaccination plan that contains the preparation of risk communication plans and conduct of early Vaccine Communication Campaign to disseminate critical information on COVID-19 vaccination.

The said plan must also include a master list of priority eligible...

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) today dismissed apprehensions that the re-employment of only 15k contact tracers will weaken the Philippines' contact tracing capacity which remains to be strong, ten months since the start of the pandemic.

DILG Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonathan E. Malaya said that the existing number of Contact Tracers (CTs) currently stands at 255,854 nationwide which is more than sufficient for the country’s needs. “We already have 29,611 contact tracing teams which is composed of 255,854 contact tracers nationwide. Even without the DILG hiring, we already have sufficient number of contact tracers.”

He said that the DILG rehiring...