Nearly 200,000 displaced workers get P 622-M assistance

MANILA, Philippines — Close to 200,000 workers have received cash assistance from the government’s assistance programs to mitigate the impact of the national health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Sunday.

In a report, Dole said that about P622 million in assistance funds had been disbursed to beneficiaries of the Covid Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD)-Barangay ako Bahay Ko (BKBK) program.

As of April 4, some 102,895 formal sector workers had received the P5,000 cash assistance under CAMP while close to 80,000 workers in the informal sector benefitted from TUPAD BKBK program, Dole said in a statement.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier directed Dole officials to relax the requirements in the submission of establishment reports for the processing of the cash assistance.

He said Dole hopes to provide cash aid to more than 350,000 formal and informal sector workers by the middle of the month utilizing over P1.5 billion in assistance funds under CAMP and TUPAD.

The labor department would need another P5 billion for the remainder of the month to help more workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis which has ballooned to more than 600,000 based on Dole’s field monitoring reports.