The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is eyeing the approval of around 100,000 more applications for cash aid under its COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) for the tourism sector.
DOLE Information and Publication Service (IPS) Dir. Rolly Francia made this revelation to labor beat reporters Monday afternoon, May 10, even as he said that the agency would no longer be accepting online applications for the "ayuda" or financial assistance.
CAMP provides for a one-time cash aid of P5,000 to each beneficiary. The program has a total budget of P3.1 billion.
So far, the application of 503,616 workers from 17,607 establishments, organizations, and associations nationwide have been approved, IPS figures as of May 9 showed. Add to this the 17,408 workers in the tourism sector who applied for the benefit individually and were, likewise, approved.
Of the 521,024 total CAMP beneficiaries so far, 354,748 have received their financial assistance (worth an accumulated P1,773,740,000) via payment center remittance. The remaining 166,276 approved applications (equivalent to P831,380,000) are awaiting disbursement.
This means that out of the P3.1 billion budget, there remains a balance of P494,880,000, which according to Francia could cover "more or less" 100,000 more CAMP applicants.
He said that there are still 215,000 applications up for validation.
In a virtual press briefing Monday, Francia said DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III has signed Labor Advisory No. 10 Series of 2021. The one-page document states that, "effective 5 p.m. 10 May 2021, the Department of Labor and Employment in coordination with the Department of Tourism shall cease to accept online applications for the P5,000 financial assistance under the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) for the tourism sector."
"The department has reached the target beneficiaries and is currently evaluating and processing payment of the remaining applications," it read.
The tourism sector was among the hardest hit by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which forced countries around the world to impose unprecedented restrictions on travel in a bid to control the spread of the deadly disease.
A total of 995,710 workers from 23,051 establishments, organizations, and associations in the country have applied for the financial assistance under CAMP.