10K Batangas residents get emergency employment aid

FILE: Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III during a press conference on Thursday (Sept. 27, 2018), which is held at the DOLE main office in Intramuros, Manila.(PNA photo by Gil Calinga)

MANILA — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has provided emergency employment assistance to some 10,000 beneficiaries in 10 municipalities in Batangas affected by Taal Volcano’s eruption.

“When we went there, we already extended assistance by way of providing them with emergency employment. We provided emergency employment to 1,000 beneficiaries per municipality affected by the Taal Volcano eruption,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a press briefing on Thursday.

Bello noted that instructions on work for beneficiaries will come from the towns’ mayors.

“We will pay them for one month muna (for now), amounting to about PHP72.6 million,” the DOLE chief added.

The beneficiaries are from the municipalities of Lemery, Mataas na Kahoy, Agoncillo, Laurel, Talisay, Taal, San Nicolas, Balete, San Jose, and Sta. Teresita.

On Wednesday, Bello ordered the release of an initial PHP72.6 million for emergency assistance to those affected by the eruption.

The assistance will be in the form of emergency employment under the government internship program.

The beneficiaries will be mobilized by the local government units in the rehabilitation of the affected municipalities of the province.

Thousands of people in the said province were affected by the Taal Volcano’s eruption on January 12.