DOLE relaxes requirements on applications for assistance
In our desire to provide assistance to the most number of workers affected by the global pandemic and in view of the decision of the President to extend the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, we have adopted the following measures:
We are guaranteeing that no information given by employers in the submission of establishment reports will be disclosed to the public or used against them in the future. This is to encourage more companies to submit their reports so that the government will be able to provide assistance to their workers and employees.
We are no longer strictly requiring the submission of the company payroll in the establishment report. Any proof of payment of salaries and wages will be sufficient compliance with the requirement.
Our field offices will continue processing establishment reports even during the Holy Week to speed up the processing of assistance, and we have entered into an agreement with Land Bank for the expeditious release and remittance of funds through their branches and automated teller machines nationwide.
We are just awaiting the approval by the President of the recommendation of the Inter- Agency Task Force for additional funding for the following assistance program of the Department of Labor and Employment:
1. P10,000 assistance to affected documented or undocumented overseas Filipino workers, who are stranded overseas or have been repatriated under the DOLE AKAP program. The Philippine Overseas Labor Offices and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration can now start processing the assistance.
2. Additional fund for the Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers-Barangay Ko Bahay Ko (Tupad #BKBK) for the informal sector workers, and
3. Additional funds for the Covid Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) which provides a one-time P5,000 assistance to workers in the formal economy.
We hope to aid all 715,000 workers whose employers numbering close to 30,000 had applied for financial assistance as of today under CAMP. We are ready to process more requests if more establishments will submit their reports.
Also with additional funding, the Tupad #BKBK shall be able to finance the emergency work of 700,000 in the informal sector.
So far, these two programs already benefitted 440,000 workers to date. In the DOLE AKAP program, we are looking at providing assistance to about 150,000 OFWs. — SILVESTRE H. BELLO III, DOLE secretary