THE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will now be able to provide cash aid to more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) affected by Covid-19, after it was granted a fresh source of funding for its Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) program by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
The DBM recently authorized DOLE to use some of the additional P5-billion funds, which it allocated to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) last June, for AKAP.
AKAP is a one-time cash aid of P10,000 or $200 provided by DOLE to Covid-affected OFWs. “With additional funding, more OFWs will benefit from the AKAP program and even more overseas workers will be repatriated and provided with assistance,” Bello said in a statement on Sunday.
DOLE Financial and Management Service (FMS) Director Warren M. Miclat gave the authorization in response to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello’s request for an additional P2.5-billion funding for AKAP.
“The reply of DBM is to just get it from the P5 billion, which was released to OWWA. We will be meeting with the ILAB [International Labor Affairs Bureau]-DOLE and OWWA on the matter,” Miclat told BusinessMirror in an SMS.
The P5-billion additional budget given to OWWA was initially to be used to shoulder “the cost of Covid tests of OFWs upon arrival in the country, their food and accommodation in hotels while awaiting test results and the transport to their home provinces once tested negative of the virus.”
Last week, DOLE announced it is once again running out of funds for AKAP, which had benefited 233,000 OFWs as of August 8, 2020.
The program initially had an allocation of P1.5 billion, but was increased by DBM by a billion due to the sheer number of its applicants.
Currently, AKAP has a P2.5-billion budget allocation, which is good for only 250,000 beneficiaries.
DOLE is requesting for another P2.5 billion for AKAP since DOLE’s Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) and OWWA had processed and approved the applications of 267,584 OFWs.
1 comment