An employers’ group in Pampanga province has urged the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) to give its P5,000 cash aid under the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) to all workers, regardless of their company’s size or number of employees.
Renato Romero, president of Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (PamCham), said the crisis that stemmed from the new coronavirus disease had become an “economic catastrophe” that placed small, medium and large businesses on “equal footing.”
“In fact, big businesses are reeling more from this crisis because their fixed carrying costs are larger in scale and cannot be deferred, lest their chances of recovery become nil when the lockdown is lifted,” Romero said in an April 8 letter to Ma. Zenaida Angara-Campita, Dole director for Central Luzon.
Romero said a survey had shown that many PamCham members had been considering downsizing or shutting down operations. Given the present situation, the Dole must fast-track the release of the cash assistance and apply it equally, regardless of company size or work force, he said.
Disservice
“After all, the intended beneficiaries of CAMP are not the employers but the employees. We do everyone a disservice when the much needed cash assistance is inequitably distributed,” he said.
According to him, big companies had been pacifying irate employees and were even accused of not acting on their behalf after hearing the announcement of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III that CAMP would cover all workers and not just employees of selected small companies.
On Monday, Campita said she received PamCham’s letter but did not indicate whether the appeal had been transmitted to Bello. Her office reported granting aid to 12,615 workers from March 27 to April 4.
Under a department order issued by Bello on March 17, CAMP can be accessed by private establishments that have implemented flexible work arrangements or temporary closure due to the threat of COVID-19.
In a statement, Campita said the Dole has “prioritized micro, small and medium enterprises as these are presumably the ones that have no cushion to support their affected employees due to disruption and suspension of business operations.”
Romero assured Campita that employers had heeded President Duterte’s request to release the salaries and prorated 13th-month pay of their employees. Some had already advanced the one-month salary until April 15 and released the entire 13th and 14th month bonuses.
“We likewise seek your cognizance of the flawed perception that workers of big companies are in a better position than workers of small companies,” Romero said.
Error
In Western Visayas, several mayors in Iloilo province urged the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to explain the reduced cash aid allocations due to an error and apologize for it.
The mayors were informed last week that the number of beneficiaries listed by towns and cities in the region was not accurate because it included families who had received conditional cash transfer grants from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
Under the guidelines, cash subsidies for 4Ps beneficiaries will be distributed through their cash cards and not through the local governments. The cash assistance in Western Visayas is P6,000 per family.
Rhea Peñaflor, DSWD assistant secretary for specialized programs, cited “miscommunication” in the transmission of the allocation figures by its regional field office to the local governments.
“It is our common interest to expedite the release of the assistance to the beneficiaries,” Peñaflor said, adding that the government would look for funds to make up for the gaps attributed to the error.
The DSWD regional office has apologized to the mayors.
“I believe I speak for all the [Iloilo] mayors that the DSWD regional office has a lot of explaining to do to our constituents,” said Mayor Rosario Mediatrix Fernandez of San Enrique town, Iloilo. Fernandez is the president of the provincial chapter of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines.
Fernandez said she was initially informed by the DSWD that her town was allocated P39 million for 6,511 beneficiaries. But she was later told that more than 1,700 4Ps beneficiaries, with subsidies totaling P10 million, would be removed from the list.
“People might blame the village officials and mayors for this mistake,” she said. INQ