Few Cordillera workers apply for cash grants

BAGUIO CITY—New grants allocated for Cordillera workers who were displaced due to the pandemic remained unclaimed, owing to poor communication signals and overlapping government aid programs, the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) said here on Tuesday.

A total of P147 million had been made available for the second round of the coronavirus adjustment measures program (Camp 2), a feature of the second relief and recovery law, Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which would lapse on Dec. 19.

Unserved

But as of Dec. 1, only 7,188 out of the targeted 29,363 workers had applied for the P5,000 subsidy, according to Exequiel de Guzman, the Dole Cordillera director.

New grants were released to 48,000 workers who applied but were unserved in the first Camp that disbursed P128 million in April, and those who worked for firms such as business process outsourcing companies or those which had yet to seek assistance.

Disqualified

A low turnout of applicants was aggravated by the damage wrought by the series of typhoons in November, De Guzman said.

But some workers could have also applied for subsidies offered by other agencies, such as the Social Security System, and would be disqualified from taking a second grant, he said.

The Dole has been supporting 20,808 workers employed by 966 establishments in the region that were closed in March. Close to 400 of these establishments implemented workday reductions that affected 11,158 employees. —VINCENT CABREZA