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DOLE to give P10K cash aid to displaced OFWs

Pauline Palacio
Nov 14, 2020
1 min read

AID. To help lessen the impact of the pandemic on the country’s labor force, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will be providing aid to displaced workers. © Dumosmog

Displaced Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) will receive a one-time P10,000 cash assistance under the Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) financial assistance project by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

The P10,000 would be given to those OFWs whose jobs were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since Oct. 4, DOLE reported that they have given financial assistance to almost 280,000 OFWs.

The department has already handed out some P2.853 billion in AKAP funds to both on-site and repatriated OFW recipients as of early October with a supplemental P5 million budget had been given to DOLE by the government.

President Duterte had also urged DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III during a Cabinet briefing last Nov. 4 to assure that “the money is in the hands of the beneficiaries by Christmas time”.

“Mapapagpatuloy pa po ng gobyerno ang pagpapauwi ng mga OFW natin na kasalukuyang stranded sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng mundo sa tulong ng P5 billion na karagdagang pondo para sa DOLE,” noted Senator Joel Villanueva, chair of the Senate committee on labor and employment, referring to the additional P5 million funding.

The program was in coordination with 40 Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

Additionally, the AKAP has already approved 312,974 of the 637,873 applications for assistance received by POLOs and OWWA field offices since last month.