IATF OKs additional P5-B budget for DOLE program on displaced workers
MANILA, Philippines — An additional P5billion budget has been approved for the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) cash assistance programs for overseas Filipino workers and other displaced workers due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease announced this Tuesday in a virtual briefing.
“The recommendations of the Department of Labor and Employment for the social amelioration program for the formal workers sector as presented are hereby approved,” IATF spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said.
“For this purpose, the IATF supports the approval and immediate release of the requested budget by the Department of Labor and Employment amounting to P5 billion,” he added.
The additional budget will fund DOLE’s COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), a one-time P5,000 assistance for formal workers whose livelihoods were affected by the quarantine measures to combat COVID-19.
Nograles said the additional budget will also fund DOLE’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa ating Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD), an emergency employment program for displaced workers; and Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) for OFWs.
A budget of P1.5 billion was earlier allocated for CAMP and TUPAD.
DOLE earlier said it hopes to provide cash aid to more than 350,000 formal and informal sector workers by utilizing the P1.5 billion in assistance funds under CAMP and TUPAD.
The labor department said the additional P5 billion it requested will help more workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis which has ballooned to more than 600,000 based on its field monitoring reports.
“Provided, that the beneficiaries of the aforementioned shall be separate and distinct from those already covered by social amelioration programs by other agencies of the national government,” Nograles noted.
DOLE earlier said it has so far assisted nearly 200,000 displaced workers by distributing P622 million assistance funds.
GSG
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