Application for COVID-19 cash aid closed, DOLE says

The Department of Labor and Employment said Saturday that the application for the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program or CAMP3 has been officially closed since March 4.

DOLE said CAMP3 is a one-time P5,000 aid to workers in the private sector affected by the declaration of Alert Level 3, or higher.

To recall, the National Capital Region and several other areas were under Alert Level 3 for most of January.

Under Alert Level 3, several establishments will be allowed to operate at 30% indoor venue capacity only for fully vaccinated individuals and 50% outdoor venue capacity, provided that all employees are fully vaccinated.

Face-to-face classes, contact sports, funfairs/perya, and casinos are among the activities and establishments that are prohibited under Alert Level 3.

Citing Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III’s advisory released on Friday, March 11, the DOLE said that the agency stopped accepting online applications for the CAMP 3 assistance on March 4.

But if Alert Level 3 is reimposed, the system will be opened and start accepting applications for CAMP, it said.

Further, the department said that in Labor Advisory No. 06 series of 2022,  Bello clarified that DOLE shall continue to process and evaluate all applications received before the system's closure.

It said that applicants with submitted applications may track the status of their application on https://reports.dole.gov.ph/track_application.

"DOLE is ready to continue providing support to affected workers through its various assistance programs and employment facilitation services," said Bello.

As of March 6, the DOLE has already approved the CAMP3 application of 29,973 workers. 

Likewise, the DOLE said Metro Manila reported the most number of applicant-workers with 58,008 or 35 percent; CALABARZON with 18,935 or 11%; and Region III with 17,024 or 10%. 

It noted that most of the workers who have applied for CAMP came from establishments that implemented temporary closure.

Moreover, most of the applicant establishments belong to micro (2,714 or 51%) and small (2,324 or 44%) enterprises.

DOLE's CAMP3 was launched in January 2022 to help workers affected by the temporary or permanent closure of businesses and retrenchment of companies when the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) placed several areas in the country under Alert Level 3, or higher. —LBG, GMA News