Leyte’s day care workers given incentives

By Provincial Media Relations Center
December 1, 2010

TACLOBAN CITY  –  More than one thousand day care workers from all over Leyte were recently given cash incentives as the provincial government poured in more or less P1.1 million budget to distribute such.

A total of 1,368 day care workers received their respective cash incentives based on the number of years they have served as such in their barangays.

Day care workers who have served 7 months to 4 years each received P600; 5 years to 9 years P800 each; 10 years to 19 years P1,000 and 20 years and above P2,000. Day care officers also got a cash incentive of P600.

Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla who led the distribution of the cash incentives, which was also timed for the Culmination Program of the Annual Children Month’s Celebration, at the Visayas State University (VSU) Gymnasium in Baybay, Leyte, said the cash incentives given yearly cannot at all suffice the sacrifice the workers give to provide child care and education to the young ones in their respective barangay.

“We know this is not enough to compensate for the duties you have done but the province and the people are grateful to all our day care workers for the hard work they give year in and year out,” Gov. Petilla said during his speech.

He likewise commended day care workers who have served 20 years taking care of day care children in their barangays.

Meanwhile, he reiterated the importance of Early Child Care Development and the role they play in it.

Under the program he said, day care workers play the role of shaping the children early on in their years and provide them with mental stimulation, cognitive skills development, physical development and values formation.

He added that there are other programs being pursued by the provincial government for child care development which is the nutritional feeding program to lessen the number of malnourished children in the province.

Early child care and development, he added, is important as studies have shown that the brain development of a child starts from 0 to 6 years old.

Home-based and public day care center workers must have the proper skills, modules and training to be able to run these facilities, the governor said.