BAGUIO CITY – Displaced tourism workers in the city will get cash aid after the government released to tourism-related organizations here certificates that allow their members to receive assistance.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, who led the turnover of the certificate of eligibility Sunday, said about 1,466 identified members would benefit from the cash assistance.
In a message during the event, Puyat said the assistance is the government's aid to workers in the tourism sector who were displaced by the pandemic.
"We included other sectors which are indirectly related to tourism but whose financial situation is also hurting when the tourism sector was affected by the pandemic," she said.
Some of the beneficiary organizations include wedding and events suppliers organizations, events workers associations, masseuse and tour guide associations, among others.
Each of the individual beneficiaries will receive P5,000.
Puyat said the latest beneficiaries now join the 6,521 other workers in the tourism sector who have received cash assistance.
She added that over P30 million has been released by the government to Baguio and neighboring areas.
Puyat said Baguio, the show window of the region and the area with the biggest tourism share, received 268,912 tourists in 2020 which is an 82 percent drop from the tourist arrival in 2019.
Baguio only received P1.8 billion in tourism receipts in 2020 compared to the P8.6 billion in 2019, she added.