MORE overseas Filipino workers (OFW) will be benefiting from the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) program.
This after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) granted DOLE an additional P1 billion for the one-time P10,000 cash aid program for OFWs affected by the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
“I just received a notice from the Department of Budget and Management that it is giving additional funding [for AKAP]. It is good they took pity with us and gave us the additional P1 billion,” Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said during an online press briefing on Thursday.
Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado confirmed to BusinessMirror in an SMS the increase in AKAP funding.
“This came from pooled savings,” Avisado said.
Bello admitted that additional funding will not be enough for them to accommodate all of the 411,000 people who already applied for the AKAP.
Of the applicants, 142,550 were deemed qualified, while another 27,675 were denied.
DOLE had requested an additional P2.5 billion budget from DBM for the implementation of the AKAP.
This is on the top of the initial P1.5 billion given by DBM for the said program, which is expected to benefit 150,000 workers.
Ongoing applications
With the release of the additional AKAP budget, Bello said they are still accepting applications for the program, despite saying in an interview on Wednesday that they already stopped the activity.
DOLE’s Information and Publication Services also released a statement stating that Bello already issued a memo to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) ordering them to suspend accepting AKAP applications.
A source privy to the details of the AKAP implementation said that only some of the POLOs had stopped accepting AKAP applications since they have yet to meet the number quota for applicants.
Bello said they hope DBM will still grant them the additional P1.5 billion, which they requested for the AKAP implementation.
“As long as we have the budget, we will continue to accept applications and those who will qualify [will get] 200 dollars cash assistance if they are still abroad; and if they are already here in the Philippines, they will [get] an equivalent of P10,000,” Bello said.
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