22,000 ousted workers ask DOLE for financial help
By Sean Gere Pascual
More than 22,000 displaced workers applied for financial aid from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). This was due to the massive unemployment brought about by the closing of business establishments under Alert Level 3 and COVID-19 surge. However, along with hundreds of denied applications, financial aid anomalies continued to worsen the plights of workers amid the pandemic.
Holiday aftermath crisis
The stricter quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and nearby areas were caused by the COVID-19 surge during the Christmas holiday season. Such flow of positive cases was believed to be escalated by the exceedingly contagious Omicron variant.
The government initially promised the restrictions to be just until January 15. However, the cases exponentially increased up to more than 35,000 in the second week of the month, urging the officials to announce extension of heightened restrictions in the nation’s capital.
Unemployment surge
Under Alert Level 3, establishments could only run their businesses at 30% indoor capacity and 50% outdoor capacity, both restricted to the fully vaccinated. Hence, massive unemployment occurred after employers either permanently or temporarily halted business operations following the mandate. Assistant Labor Secretary Dominique Tutay stated that this ultimately resulted in the displacement of more than 25,000 workers in the formal sector.
The financial aid, which DOLE named Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), has an allocated one billion pesos budget that will cover workers who were affected, either displaced or temporarily laid-off, during the implementation of the Alert Level 3 or higher in their localities. In this program, beneficiaries will be given a one-time five thousand pesos cash aid.
After a series of denied applications, Tutay instructed the financial aid aspirants to not give up because this might be just a result of mismatched application entries and be fixable by submission of the required documents.
Financial aid anomalies
Given the history of financial aid anomaly scandals in the country, labor groups are skeptical about DOLE’s performance in providing assistance. Although the DOLE initially allocated one billion pesos for their assistance programs, the Commission on Audit (COA) exposed five workers who claimed they obtained less than five thousand pesos assistance.
Furthermore, a security agency worker in Metro Manila claimed that the assistance he received was deducted from his salary. Upon conducting surveys among targeted beneficiaries, the COA also revealed that 26.33% or 221 of the beneficiaries, mostly Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), were denied financial aid.
“The non-receipt by the affected workers of the one-time financial assistance defeated the main purpose of the Bayanihan I Act, thru the DOLE programs, for the immediate assistance that could help the affected workers on their financial struggles brought by the COVID-19 pandemic,” COA stressed.
Despite these, DOLE continued to assure the displaced workers and said that Php 130 million would be allotted to the workers who recently lost their jobs.
