DOLE gets additional P5B to aid displaced workers amid COVID-19 emergency

The inter-agency body handling the government’s COVID-19 response efforts has approved the additional P5-billion funding for financial assistance to displaced workers due to the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, spokesperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), announced the development at a virtual press conference on Tuesday.

The additional funding will be used for the Department of Labor and Employment’s COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD)-Barangay ko, Bahay Ko (BKBK) program and the Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) sa OFWs program.

“Provided, that the beneficiaries of the aforementioned shall be separate and distinct from those already covered by social amelioration programs by other agencies of the national government,” Nograles said.

The department previously announced plans to help more than 350,000 formal and informal sector workers by the middle of the month utilizing over P1.5 billion in assistance funds under CAMP and TUPAD.

It had also said it would need P5 billion for the rest of April to aid more workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis which has increased to more than 600,000 based on DOLE’s field monitoring reports.

President Rodrigo Duterte has extended the Luzon-wide quarantine to April 30. It was originally scheduled to end on April 13. — RSJ, GMA News