The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported that Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO), as well as the local offices of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), have already processed and given out cash assistance to over 70,000 OFWs through the DOLE Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (DOLE-AKAP) program.
This means that the Php10,000 cash assistance was already handed out to nearly 50% of the department’s total target to provide a cumulative total of Php1.5 billion pesos for OFWs across the world.
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However, the department is also aware that the POLO-OWWA offices worldwide have received requests from more than 297,000 OFWs for the cash assistance program.
In the Philippines, DOLE has realigned another Php1.5 billion from its budget this year to give more financial aid for an estimate of 300,000 workers that their department has already processed for the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (DOLE-CAMP), according to a report from the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
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“With internally sourced funds, DOLE will now be able to assist a total of about 650,000 workers with PHP3.24 billion in total CAMP assistance. This, however, will leave around 1,000,000 workers still unserved under the special amelioration program. The requests for assistance submitted by their employers had already been processed,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement as per PNA.
The realignment was implemented to be able to assist more formal sector workers displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic, which is over 2.3 million.
As of April 28, some 87,301 establishments reported that over 1.6 million of their workers were affected by temporary closures while 797,729 were on alternative work arrangements due to the enhanced community quarantine
