{"id":254848,"date":"2020-05-14T06:58:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T10:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=254848"},"modified":"2020-05-14T06:58:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T10:58:01","slug":"dole-gets-addl-p1-b-fund-for-ofw-cash-aid-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/14\/dole-gets-addl-p1-b-fund-for-ofw-cash-aid-program\/","title":{"rendered":"DOLE gets add\u2019l P1-B fund for OFW cash aid program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cGood news. I just received notice (from) the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) that it will add PHP1 billion for our funds,\u201d said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III during a Laging Handa briefing. (File photo by Ramon FVelasquez\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Thursday said it will get an additional PHP1 billion for its Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) program that provides cash assistance to displaced and stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) due to coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood news. I just received notice (from) the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) that it will add PHP1 billion for our funds,\u201d said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III during a Laging Handa briefing.<\/p>\n

The AKAP program provides a one-time cash aid worth USD200 (PHP10,000) for OFWs.<\/p>\n

Bello said they initially requested for PHP2.5 billion as additional funding for the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe requested an additional budget of PHP2.5 billion hoping that this will be sufficient to answer for the estimated OFWs affected by Covid but we are only given PHP1 billion. I think we will live within the limit of the PHP1 billion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, Bello said the agency has approved over 100,000 applications for the AKAP program out of the around 411,000 received.<\/p>\n

He admitted that their initial estimate of 150,000 OFWs with a budget of PHP1.5 billion, is far from the actual applicants who applied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that our estimate is a little low, as of yesterday (Wednesday), 411,000 have applied for the AKAP. We approved more than 100,000, so there is still excess funds,\u201d Bello said.<\/p>\n

He assured that until they still have funds they will continue to accept and approve applications of qualified beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is important until we have the money, we will continue to accept applications and those who will qualify we will give them USD200 cash assistance and if they are here in the country, we will give them the peso equivalent of PHP10,000,\u201d the DOLE secretary added.<\/p>\n

For Filipinos abroad, Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in the country they are employed is accepting applications for the cash aid, while the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) is processing the applications for applicants in the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Thursday said it will get an additional PHP1 billion for its …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":249288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ferdinand-patinio","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254849,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254848\/revisions\/254849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}