DOLE eyeing to finish P3-B payout for over 600k tourism workers by June — official

The Department of Labor and Employment is eyeing to finish distributing P3 billion worth of financial assistance to over 600,000 tourism affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, a DOLE official said Friday.

Assistant Secretary Dominique Rubia-Tutay made the announcement during the Laging Handa briefing, saying that around  250,000 workers under the tourism sector already received such assistance amounting to P1.26 billion.

The financial assistance is worth P5,000 per individual.

“We have processed claims of more than 151,000 tourism-related sector workers worth P758 million which we hope to be done within this month,” Tuyay said.

“There is [a] remaining P1 billion budget for assistance to tourism workers to accommodate around 200,000 workers. Hopefully, we can finish the payout within June,” she added.

Tuyay said that around 300,000 tourism industry workers have been displaced since COVID-19 pandemic hit the country in March 2020.

“This could be higher, considering that this number only accounts for those in the formal sector,” Tuyay added.

Aside from an online job fair set on May 1, DOLE is also launching a Job Summit on the same day involving the government and the private sector in an aim to recover lost jobs, including those in the tourism sector, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Philippines has 183,527 active COVID-19 cases, with 11,429 new COVID-19 cases recorded on April 15 alone.

Likewise, 55,681 new COVID-19 cases have been recorded in the National Capital Region—the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country—for the last two weeks. — RSJ, GMA News