DOLE provides cash aid, emergency employment to 286K workers

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with some members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang on April 13, 2020. KARL NORMAN ALONZO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has provided financial assistance to around 286,000 workers affected by the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak.

According to President Rodrigo Duterte’s third weekly report submitted to Congress, the DOLE has distributed the PHP5,000 cash assistance under the Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) to 167,941 workers or around 52 percent of its targeted beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, some 118,086 informal workers, or 46 percent of the targeted beneficiaries, have benefited from the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD)-Barangay Ko Bahay Ko (BKBK) program.

Based on the report, around PHP1.046 billion in assistance funds have been provided to beneficiaries of CAMP and TUPAD.

TUPAD provides the equivalent of a daily minimum wage for 10 days of work for the informal sector workers.

Tricycle drivers, vendors and other daily wage earners affected by the community quarantines of the LGUs can avail of this emergency employment.

CAMP, on the other hand, is a safety net program that provides support to affected workers in private establishments that have adopted FWA (flexible work arrangement) or temporary closure during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the “Bayanihan to Heal as One” law, the executive department must submit a weekly report to Congress, every Monday, detailing how he used his special powers to address Covid-19.

The report must include the amount and corresponding utilization of funds used, augmented, reprogrammed, reallocated, and realigned.