President Duterte has approved an additional Php5 billion budget to provide assistance for overseas Filipino workers who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III confirmed the announced stating that the money will be used for repatriation, of which a huge part of the funds will be allocated for the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to help send OFWs home.
“Dahil po mahal na mahal ni Pangulong Duterte ang ating mga bagong bayani, ibinigay po nya ang kailangan nating dagdag na pondo para sa repatriation at tulong para sa ating mga OFW,” said Secretary Bello.
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OWWA covers the costs of the COVID-19 tests of all OFWs upon arrival in the Philippines. The gov’t agency also provides OFWs with free food and accommodation while waiting for their test results. Once OFWs test negative for the virus, OWWA also provides free transportation to send OFWs back to their home provinces. To date, over 129,491 OFWs have benefitted from these services.
Meanwhile, DOLE’s P2.5 billion AKAP fund is almost completely depleted with assistance already provided to more than 233,000 land-based and sea-based workers, with a disbursed amount of Php2.388 billion as of August 8.
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Bello said with additional funding, more OFWs will benefit from the Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (DOLE-AKAP) program and even more overseas workers will be repatriated and provided with assistance.
“I have directed our POLOs to accelerate the processing of the assistance so that a greater number of our OFWs will benefit soonest from the aid coming from our government,” he said.
To date, DOLE’s Philippine Overseas Labor Offices and OWWA had processed and approved the applications of 267,584 OFWs under the program meant to benefit only 250,000.
