Pandemic displaced more than 2 million workers – DOLE

MANILA, Philippines — More than two million workers have already been displaced by the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Sunday.

The number of affected workers from nearly 80,000 establishments ballooned further to 2,073,362 nationwide as of April 24, Dole said, citing reports from its regional offices.

“Almost 1.4 million workers were displaced due to temporary closures while more than 687,000 had reduced incomes under alternative work arrangements like less workdays, rotation, forced leave, and telecommuting,” Dole said in a statement.

Highest in NCR

According to DOLE, the National Capital Region recorded the highest displacement figure with 687,634 workers.

Dole said that so far it already disbursed P1.7 billion of its regular funds to finance the one-time assistance of P5,000 under the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) to 345,865 formal sector workers.

It added that about 90 percent of establishments that reported work displacements are seeking the CAMP assistance for their workers.

As to the informal sector workers, DOLE said 259,449 have already benefited from their Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers Barangay Ko, Bahay Ko (TUPAD #BKBK) program amounting to P1.14 billion also from Dole’s 2020 budget.

On April 15, DOLE stopped accepting requests for assistance under CAMP after having been swamped with volumes of applications quickly depleting its measly regular assistance fund.

Meanwhile, more than 230,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are also seeking cash assistance from the government, exceeding the set target of 150,000 beneficiaries for the P1.5 billion AKAP aid fund.

Supplemental budget eyed

DOLE said a request for a supplemental budget was being eyed to be able to provide more OFWs with the needed emergency assistance.

Based on reports by the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs) in 40 posts across the globe, a total of 89,436 OFWs were either displaced or on a no-work, no-pay status due to lockdowns and slowdown of businesses in host countries.

As of April 24, the Polos and the local offices of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration already received 233,015 requests for assistance under the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program-AKAP emergency fund that provides a one-time P10,000 or $200 cash aid to qualified OFWs.

Dole said of the total number of requests, 118,134 were received by POLOs from workers onsite while the remainder were submitted by repatriated OFWs to OWWA and DOLE regional offices in the country.

It also said that among those seeking assistance, 49,040 OFWs were already set to receive the cash aid after having met the requirements. They were processed within 10 working days since the release of the AKAP funds on April 9.

Those eligible come equally from both land and sea-based workers, DOLE added.