MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has realigned P1.5 billion of its 2020 budget to aid more formal sector workers displaced by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
In a statement on Wednesday, DOLE said the realigned budget would be used to provide a one-time cash assistance of P5,000 to 300,000 workers, whose applications for the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) have already been processed.
DOLE earlier suspended the acceptance of CAMP applications when its funds went “very close” to being depleted after it was “swamped with volumes of requests.”
According to DOLE, it has already provided cash assistance to 407,300 workers under CAMP.
DOLE said some 87,301 establishments had reported that over 1.6 million of their workers had been affected by temporary closures triggered by the pandemic while another 797,729 were on alternative work arrangements due to the quarantine being enforced to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
“With internally sourced funds, DOLE will now be able to assist a total of about 650,000 workers with P3.24 billion in total CAMP assistance,” the department said.
“This, however, will leave around 1,000,000 million workers still unserved under the special amelioration program. The requests for assistance submitted by their employers had already been processed,” it added.
OFW aid
Meanwhile, DOLE has so far provided a cash assistance of P10,000 each to over 70,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) under the Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) program which has a budget of P1.5 billion.
Over 297,000 OFWs are currently seeking cash assistance amid the pandemic, DOLE said, citing reports from the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs) and local offices of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
The DOLE will start its regular Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD) program in areas outside of the extended enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in May.
TUPAD will use a separate P1 billion in regular funds of the DSWD.
/atm