Duterte: Over 1.26M workers received cash aid from COVID-19 subsidy

Around 1.26 million employees of small businesses have already received cash assistance under the government’s COVID-19 emergency subsidy program, President Rodrigo Duterte told Congress on Monday.

In his weekly report, Duterte said a total of P10.1 billion in cash grants had been released by the Social Security System to 1,261,044 out of the target 3.4 million beneficiaries as of May 6.

Government data also showed that at least 101,400 employees have submitted applications and around 2.2 million employees have been found eligible for the subsidy program as of May 7.

The financial assistance ranges from P5,000 to P8,000 per tranche for every beneficiary, depending on the minimum wage levels in their respective regions. The payout schedule for the first tranche was from May 1 to May 15. The second tranche will be from May 16 to 31.

"The Small Wage Subsidy Program has proved to be a relatively faster and more efficient substitute for distributing SAPs [social amelioration programs] to formal workers, using the records and systems of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Social Security System," Duterte said.

The government has allocated P51 billion for the wage subsidy program. -NB, GMA News