By Jerry Alcayde
CALAPAN CITY, ORIENTAL MINDORO – The Department of Labor and Employment in Mimaropa (Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) said yesterday that there were still thousands of workers in the region, who have not been accommodated under the government’s financial assistance for employees affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis due to the lack of funds.
DOLE-Mimaropa Regional Director Albert E. Gutib said that 5,879 applications from different establishments were not acted upon because of limited resources allotted for the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP).
“We are deeply saddened that there were establishments which were not accommodated by our CAMP financial assistance due to the Department’s limited budget”, Gutib said.
The DOLE regional head said that those who were not included under CAMP may still avail of the financial assistance being offered by the Department of Finance (DOF) under its Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS).
Gutib’s office started to release the last wave of financial assistance amounting to P74,995,000 on April 29, benefitting 14,999 employees coming from 1,130 different establishments in the region.
In all, his office has served a total of 16,708 workers from 1,230 establishments regionwide with an aggregate amount of P83,540,000.
Gutib said DOLE Mimaaropa has exerted all its efforts to fast track the processing of final payment of one-time P5,000 for each covered employee which were released thru money remittance centers.
The DOLE official commended his team which wasted no time and effort to deliver the much-awaited financial aid to affected workers.
DOLE launched CAMP last March 17 as a safety net program that offers financial support to workers in private establishments that have adopted Flexible Working Arrangements (FWA) and Temporary Closure (TC) due to COVID19 pandemic.