Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III distributed wages and financial assistance worth Php 25.8 million to thousands of workers including Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in southern Cebu in two days that started last July 23.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Bello said that the DOLE team headed to the town of Balamban on Saturday to share the reference codes for the salaries of 1,710 workers under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD) program amounting to Php 6.9 million and to 711 workers in the municipality of Asturias worth Php 2.9 million.
In Toledo City, Bello led the release of TUPAD wages to 1,278 workers worth Php 5.16 million and financial assistance from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to 43 OFWs in the amount of Php 650,000.
The DOLE on Friday released more than Php 10 million to TUPAD workers in the towns of Barili and Aloguinsan while Php 4.6 million was also provided to 158 parents of profiled child laborers in Barili “for their livelihood starter kits.”
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A livelihood assistance package worth Php 16,000 to Php 30,000 would be used by each person as capital for livelihood projects like general merchandising, cattle and swine fattening, goat raising, and buying and selling.
Bello asked the workers that “You don’t have to thank us for this assistance because they don’t come from us. They come from your (taxpayers) money.”
Hundreds of workers including key leaders of Cebu province witnessed the function at the Barili Sports Complex and Alodome Sports Complex in Aloguinsan.
Apart from the parents of the child laborers benefiting from the Kabuhayan Program in Barili, some 1,103 workers in the informal economy also received their salaries and wages of Php 4.46 million under TUPAD.
DOLE Secretary also distributed the wages to 10 more TUPAD beneficiaries under the provincial government of Cebu amounting to Php 40,400 as well as financial assistance from OWWA to 34 OFWs from Barili and Dumanjug amounting to Php 570,000.
He released Php 408,040 in Aloguinsan that covered the wages of about 101 TUPAD workers in the municipality and Php 40,400 for 10 more TUPAD beneficiaries under the provincial government.
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Nine OFWs from Aloguinsan and Pinamungajan also received their financial assistance from OWWA amounting to Php 150,000.
Director DOLE-7 Salome Siaton said the total amount released to beneficiaries in Barili and Aloguinsan and the OFW-beneficiaries from Dumanjug and Pinamungajan was Php 10.26 million.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Rep. Pablo John Garcia, DOLE Undersecretary Renato Ebarle, Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns Director Lawyer Ma. Karina Perida-Trayvilla, Siaton, DOLE-7 Assistant Regional Director Lawyer Jude Thomas Trayvilla, OWWA-7 OIC-Regional Director Mae Codilla and the local chief executives of the municipalities joined Bello in the two-day assistance distribution and payout program. (AW)
