DOLE to give P5,000 cash to 85,000 formal workers after halt of COVID-19 assistance program

Despite stopping the acceptance of employers’ applications for the P5,000 cash aid to its affected workers, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Thursday that more than 85,000 beneficiaries are set to receive the one-time financial assistance.

Effective 5:00 p.m. of April 15, the online application for the COVID-19 Adjustment Measure Program (CAMP) has been closed, the DOLE announced.

Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique Tutay said this is to give way to the P51-billion wage subsidy program being rolled out by the Department of Finance (DOF) for the middle-income workers.

Since the implementation of CAMP from March 23 to date, DOLE said it was able to provide the one-time P5,000 cash assistance to 236,412 workers from 10,663 establishments, with total cash disbursements of P1.2 billion.

“The labor department has been swamped with volumes of requests that the available fund for the program amounting to P1.6 billion is very close to being depleted,” it said.

Nevertheless, the balance of around P400 million from the CAMP’s funding will be distributed to “85,563 more workers in the coming days.”

The DOLE appealed for understanding of employers and workers who were unable to receive the assistance.

“The requests simply ballooned beyond the capacity of DOLE’s resources. The situation was aggravated by the extension of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) up to April 30,” it said.

The Labor department noted that it is working closely with other agencies, including Congress, for an immediate alternative program to help ease the burden on the greater number of workers who did not benefit from CAMP.

“Our regional operations had enormous challenges in attending to the 1.6 million CAMP applications nationwide, but we are happy to extend assistance to those who had received the cash aid,” it said.

“DOLE is now moving fast its recovery plan for workers and employers to cope up with the ‘new normal’ after the ECQ. We are preparing a menu of programs that will complement national efforts to effectively address the needs of the people,” it added.—AOL, GMA News