MARIVELES, Philippines – The Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) has extended P3 million in financial assistance to Mariveles factory workers who are affected by the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine which is being enforced to limit the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
As many as 32,000 factory workers were displaced when 97 manufacturers and other businesses operating at the Bataan Freeport suspended their operations to comply with the enhanced community quarantine, said AFAB Administrator Emmanuel Pineda.
Only a medical manufacturing firm remains operational so it could produce face masks and hospital safety equipment needed by medical frontliners as the country tries to contain COVID-19 which is now classified by the World Health Organization as a global pandemic.
The financial aid was granted through a memorandum of agreement signed on Mar. 20 by Pineda and Mayor Jocelyn Castañeda.