Over 2.8M employees of small businesses receive cash aid—Duterte report

President Rodrigo Duterte. ACE MORANDANTE / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Over 2.8 million workers of small businesses have already received the cash subsidy from the government, President Rodrigo Duterte told Congress on Monday.

This constitutes the over 82 percent of the 3.4 million target beneficiaries of the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) program.

In his 9th weekly report to Congress on the use of his additional powers to address the COVID-19 crisis, Duterte said the government has released at least P21.7 billion to cover 2,816,682 employees.

“From a total of 167,389 employer-applications under the program, 3.05 million employees (90% of the target 3.4 million beneficiaries) have been approved, he added.

The program may involve a wage subsidy of up to P8,000 per eligible worker for up to two months, which will cost the government around P51 billion over the whole period.

Congress has allowed the government to meet the new set of priorities triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic by providing Duterte with the authority under the Bayanihan Act to realign and reallocate savings from the 2019 and 2020 national budgets.

These savings were used to finance the emergency subsidies for vulnerable sectors, notably the P200-billion Social Amelioration program for 18 million poor households most affected by the crisis.

JPV