In 1915, the Public Welfare Board (PWB) was created and whose functions included the study, coordination and regulation of all government and private entities engaged in social services. 

The PWB would later be abolished and replaced by the Bureau of Public Welfare (BPW) under the Department of Public Instruction, which is the precursor of the Department of Education. 

The BPW was placed under the immediate direction and control of the Commissioner of Health and Welfare, who had the rank and salary of an Undersecretary. This was provided by Act 4007, otherwise known as the Reorganization Act of 1932. 

For the first time, the qualifications of the head of the government welfare agency was specified as the Act provided that the Director of Public Welfare shall be a person who has special knowledge in social and welfare work. 

In addition to its other functions, the Bureau of Public Welfare was charged with the enforcement of the provisions of Act 4057, which regulates the practice of soliciting or receiving contributions for charitable and public welfare purposes. 

In 1939, the Philippine Legislature enacted Commonwealth Act No. 439 which paved the way for the creation of the Department of Health and Public Welfare. As a result, the Bureau of Public Welfare officially became a part of the Department of Health and Public Welfare in 1941. In addition to coordinating the services of all public and private social welfare institutions, the Bureau also manages all public child-care institutions and the provision of child welfare services. 

The Bureau of Public Welfare was reactivated shortly after the war but, due to lack of funds, it was not able to function and do much to alleviate the hardships and sufferings brought about by the War.

In 1946, the War Relief Office was created under the Department of Health and Public Welfare to give assistance to indigent widows, orphans and other indigent victims of War.

The Bureau of Public Welfare continued its child welfare function while public assistance services were being taken mostly by the newly-created War Relief Office.

New problems, however, presented themselves after the War and with these concerns arose the need for reorganization of the government to meet the post-war situation.

This era also heralded the professionalization of the Bureau of Public Welfare as it welcomed to its fold more social workers. Social work finally arrived as a profession.

Petra R. de Joya became the first professional who studied social work abroad and introduced the curricula in schools in the Philippines. Hence, she was called the Mother of Professional Service.

The National Conference of Social Workers was the first attempt to professionalize social work.

The standards setting, licensing and accreditation services for public and private child-caring institutions were also set up and launched.  The first accreditation certificates were awarded to two privately-run institutions for girls, the St. Domitilla’s and St. Eupharia’s of the Religious of the Good Shepherd.

Through Executive Order No. 94 implementing the Reorganization Act of 1947, the Bureau of Public Welfare was abolished on October 4, 1947.

It was President Manuel A. Roxas who created the Social Welfare Commission and placed it under the supervision of the Office of the Executive Secretary, with the same powers, functions and activities of the Bureau of Public Welfare.

Among the functions of the Social Welfare Commission were the proper enforcement of the laws and regulations pertaining to relief and other social services as well as the administration of all charitable and relief agencies, whether wholly or partially supported by the government or any of its branches or instrumentalities.

In 1948, the Commissioner of Social Welfare was elevated to the rank of Cabinet without portfolio.

The President’s Action Committee on Social Amelioration

At the height of the 1948 armed rebellion of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) and its armed wing the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB), a pacification campaign was launched from April 29 to June 30 under the leadership of the Commissioner of Social Welfare.

The resurgence of the PKP’s and HMB’s planned overthrow of the government prompted then President Elpidio Quirino to create the President’s Action Committee on Social Amelioration (PACSA) to effect socio-economic reforms in the countryside to address the prevailing social unrest.

The PACSA was created on August 12, 1948 by virtue of Administrative Order No. 68. The Social Welfare Commissioner, which was directly under the Office of the President, was designated Chair of PACSA with one representative each from the Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Public Works and Communications, Education, Health, Justice and Labor, the National Land Settlement Administration, the Rural Progress Administration, and one Executive Officer of the Committee as members.

On January 3, 1951, President Quirino moved for the merger of the SWC and PACSA into the Social Welfare Administration (SWA) through the issuance of Executive Order 396, which marked the beginning of an integrated public welfare program.

For the first time since Liberation, the social welfare work of the national government was consolidated under a single agency through the SWA, the precursor of the present Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Aside from the existing Division of Child Welfare, the Division of Public Assistance and the Division of Administration, as well as the Assistant to the Administrator and a Special Assistant  were created to assist the SWA Administrator in the coordination and supervision of social services.

Technical units on research, statistics and information, program and staff development, general intake and the enforcement of Act 407 were also set up.

The general relief and welfare services and welfare services in the provinces were carried on through the SWA’s 42 branch offices staffed initially by 155 field workers, 63 percent of whom were daily wage earners and were all directly under the Office of the Administrator.

During the second year of the SWA’s existence, there arose a need to open up avenues of rehabilitation to people who were willing to be relocated in areas where they would have better chances of livelihood.

A Division of Rural Welfare was created to give the needed focus on rural communities, including tribal groups, and the government’s program of opening new frontiers for land settlements primarily in Mindanao.

The following year, the 42 branch offices were increased to 47 then to 51 and was placed under four regional supervisors with two in Luzon and one each for the Visayas and Mindanao.

The four regional subdivisions were later increased to 15 to effect better supervision of the branch offices.

By 1954,  two other units were created by inter-office arrangement to meet existing conditions. The Self-Help Projects Sections was organized in keeping with the trend toward self-help and the Slum Clearance Section was established to meet the growing problems of squatting and slum areas in Manila and suburbs.

The Quirino administration faced a serious threat from the resurgence of the  Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan or HMB, the armed wing of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP). 

Although the Huks originally had been an anti-Japanese guerrilla army in Luzon, communists steadily gained control over the leadership, and when Quirino's negotiation with Huk Supreme Commander Luis Taruc bogged down in 1948, Taruc openly declared himself a communist and called for the overthrow of the government.

Alarmed that the PKP’s organization already had more than 40,000 card-bearing members by March 1951, the Quirino government went on with its sustained campaign to address the worsening peace and order problem.

The 1951 national budget included the use of a residue fund for the land resettlement program in favor of the surrendered Huks. The money helped maintain the Economic Development Corps (EDCOR), with its settlements of 6,500 hectares in Kapatagan (Lanao) and 25,000 hectares in Buldon (Cotabato) in Mindanao.

In each group taken to these places there was a nucleus of former Army personnel and their families, who became a stabilizing factor and ensured the success of the program. Indeed, less than 10 percent of the Huks who settled down gave up this new lease in life offered them by the Qurino government.

Upon assuming the reins of government, Quirino announced two main objectives of his administration: first, the economic reconstruction of the nation and second, the restoration of the faith and confidence of the people in the government.

In line with the first agenda, President Quirino created the President's Action Committee on Social Amelioration (PACSA) to mitigate the sufferings of indigent families; the Labor Management Advisory Board to advise him on labor matters; the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives Financing Administration (ACCFA) to help the farmers market their crops and save them from loan sharks; and the Rural Banks of the Philippines to facilitate credit utilities in rural areas.

Enhancing President Manuel Roxas' policy of social justice to alleviate the lot of the common people, President Quirino, almost immediately after assuming office, started a series of steps calculated to effectively ameliorate the economic condition of the people.

After periodic surprise visits to the slums in the City of Manila and other backward regions of the country, President Quirino officially made public a seven-point program for social security which included the following: unemployment insurance; old-age insurance; accident and permanent disability insurance; health insurance; maternity insurance; state relief; and labor opportunities

President Quirino also created the Social Security Commission and appointed Social Welfare Commissioner Asuncion Perez as its chairperson.

This was followed by the creation of the PACSA, which was in charge of extending aid, loans, and relief to less fortunate citizens. Both the policy and its implementation were hailed by the common people as harbingers of great benefits. 

To amplify and stabilize the functions of the Economic Development Corps (EDCOR), President Magsaysay worked for the establishment of the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA).

The NARRA took over from the EDCOR and helped in the giving some 65,000 acres to 3,000 indigent families for settlement purposes. Again, it allocated some 27,000 to a little more than 1,500 landless families, who subsequently became farmers.

As further aid to the rural people, President Magsaysay established the Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration (ACCFA). The idea was for this entity to make available rural credits. Records show that it did grant, in this wise, almost ten million dollars. This administration body next devoted its attention to cooperative marketing.

 To further ameliorate the condition of the rural areas, President Magsaysay initiated in all earnestness the artesian wells campaign.

A group-movement known as the Liberty Wells Association was formed and in record time managed to raise a considerable sum for the construction of as many artesian wells as possible. The socio-economic value of artesian wells was very much appreciated by the beneficiaries of the clean water program by the government.

Vast irrigation projects, as well as the enhancement of the Ambuklao Power plant and other similar projects, went a long way towards bringing to reality the rural improvement program which was strongly advocated by the Magsaysay administration.

President Magsaysay also enacted several laws as part of his Agrarian Reform Program:

Republic Act No. 1160 of 1954 – Abolished the LASEDECO and established the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA) to resettle dissidents and landless farmers. It was particularly aimed at rebel returnees providing home lots and farmlands in Palawan and Mindanao.

Republic Act No. 1199 (Agricultural Tenancy Act of 1954) – governed the relationship between landowners and tenant farmers by organizing share-tenancy and leasehold system. The law provided the security of tenure of tenants. It also created the Court of Agrarian Relations.

Republic Act No. 1400 (Land Reform Act of 1955) – Created the Land Tenure Administration (LTA) which was responsible for the acquisition and distribution of large tenanted rice and corn lands over 200 hectares for individuals and 600 hectares for corporations.

Republic Act No. 821 (Creation of Agricultural Credit Cooperative Financing Administration) –

Provided small farmers and shared tenants loans with low interest rates of six to eight percent.

The DSWD has constantly reinvented itself from a reactive organization to a more active and aggressive institution that knew only too well the problems at hand. The Department’s evolving functions came at a time when the country and its people had to face ordeals during the turbulent time of the seventies.

When generally, all social systems and institutions broke down during these years of rage and disquiet, the DSWD enjoyed the launch of the integrated social welfare program by then First Lady Imelda R. Marcos which made the dispersal of the Welfareville institutions in Mandaluyong. 

It should be noted that these Welfareville institutions, which was formerly under the administrative supervision of the Social Welfare Administration, was reorganized by President Carlos P. Garcia on December 11, 1958 through Executive Order No. 326.

During the 1970s, the zealous and legendary Alay Lakad was initiated by the Department to move Filipinos to walk for a cause for the out-of-school youth. Thereafter, Alay Lakad became the generic label for all marches for a cause.

The eighties saw the Department as being more relevant. The disabled such as the rural blind for example took on an active role in community life and so did the senior citizens who organized themselves.

The DSWD’s meaningful “baranganic” approach made the barangays harness the potentials of the socio-economically challenged residents that allowed them and their leaders to map out solutions for their problems.

Mere survival transcended to self-sufficiency. In the midst of political mayhem, it did not falter. But when democracy was restored, a new idealism emerged and a fresh passion resurged. As the country returned to normalcy, the various social institutions also slipped on a new countenance.

The EDSA Revolution triggered the Department to take bolder and braver steps. Devolution paved the way for increased and more focused delivery of basic social services by the local government units in the nineties.

Waging war against poverty was no easy and small chore for the Department, amid natural and steadfast and man-made disasters, remained resolute and steadfast in its social reform agenda which is now at the helm of local governments as first liners.

The Luzon earthquake in July 1990, the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in June 1991 and the Payatas trash slide in the early nineties cost many lives and extreme damage on properties. The technological limitations that went in between and after the disasters, or yet the absence of technologies to be able to respond quickly and efficiently – all these helped shaped the Department’s relief and rehabilitation efforts. 

More than responding to the victims as the debacle was unfolding, the DSWD was already thinking of how to help them recover long-term from the dent and then prepare them for the next calamities. The Department was already thinking of how to help them recover long-term from the dent and then prepare them for the next calamities.

Volunteerism, more than an innovation, exemplified what Filipinos are made of: ever resilient and caring during critical situations and crucial times. It is the same spirit that steered the Department to coalesce with non-government organizations and private groups to address various social concerns such as unemployment, underemployment, lack of education and malnutrition that took a heavy toll on the marginalized sector.

The turn of the century was a new chapter for DSWD which by this time, had become stronger in its conviction and constant in its desire to contribute to the Government’s Reform Agenda. As it turned a new leaf, the Department had to contend with the impact of globalization and emerging socio-economic challenges. It could not afford to sit in its comforts and on its laurels.

The battle cry then was Philippines 2000 which generated a lot of impact for its services and programs. And the DSWD has successfully tendered programs, projects and services that extensively reached many Filipinos.

Through the years, the Department has successfully tendered programs, projects and services that extensively reached many Filipinos that it could ever imagine.

But the demand for more substantive efforts also escalated. It figured that with too many things to offer, there was also the downside --- mixed perceptions and seeming discontent brought about by the global economic crisis that overlay in the priorities.

As a result of change, social problems evolved too. Two of the toughest problems it continues to confront to this day are: (1) children with special needs and in difficult circumstances like those left in the streets and are neglected, children in situations of armed conflict, abuse and exploitation, and children in conflict with the law and (2) families who remain impoverished.

As more Filipino workers were deployed abroad yearly, the DSWD has also set out social welfare attaches in Philippine Embassies in countries where there are many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to address issues affecting them.

Access to social services was readily made available in the local levels and far-flung communities. Social protection services gained momentum. Communities rose to their feet to put up income-generating and capacity-building support services.

Where history has re-defined DSWD’s character, the changes over the years also speak of the countless lives it has touched and changed.

Going back in time, one can see the milestones that the Department has achieved from the 1960s to the present: