Sen. Joel Villanueva endorsed on Monday the mid-year release of a P5-billion supplemental budget of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to bankroll a comprehensive labor recovery package amid the Covid contagion.
Villanueva, chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor, noted that the P5-billion assistance fund the Duterte administration released to the DOLE would “go a long way in its continued effort to repatriate overseas Filipino workers displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The senator added that the supplemental fund that Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III confirmed to have been released on Sunday would enable the DOLE to “continue providing the one-time cash grant of P10,000 to repatriated OFWs, aside from covering the cost of repatriation, testing, lodging and transportation to their home provinces.”
Villanueva added: “Mapagpapatuloy pa po ng gobyerno ang pagpapauwi ng mga OFWs natin na kasalukuyang stranded sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng mundo sa tulong ng P5 billion na karagdagang pondo para sa DOLE.”
At the same time, the senator said he was encouraging the DOLE to join him in pushing his bill providing for a comprehensive labor recovery package to provide livelihood for OFWs who want to come home.
“We also express our gratitude to our government for heeding our call for additional funding, which we have raised since May in the course of the weekly reports to Congress as provided by the Bayanihan 1 law,” the senator said.
He noted that the initial funding of DOLE’s Abot Kamay Ang Pagtulong (AKAP)—amounting to P2.5 billion—is nearing depletion with the agency disbursing around P2.388 billion as of August 8 to over 233,000 OFW beneficiaries. Both the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Philippine Overseas Labor Offices around the world have processed and approved 267,584 applications, according to the department.
The senator recalled that AKAP had intended to help 250,000 OFWs initially, but the number of applications swelled to about 597,469, prompting Bello to seek additional funding.
Villanueva acknowledged that fresh funding would also enable OWWA to continue providing for the needs of repatriated OFWs, “particularly seafarers who called the government’s attention in June for supposed unequal treatment between land-based and sea-based workers.”
Earlier, seafarers’ groups took issue with DOLE’s guidance that recruiters of sea-based workers must take care of their recruits, while land-based workers can run straight to OWWA for repatriation, testing, and transportation, prompting Villanueva, at the Senate labor committee hearing, to call DOLE’s attention to ensure “equal treatment and assistance to all OFWs.”
Moreover, Villanueva took note that the surge in applications for relief, both coming from domestic and overseas-based workers, reflect the pressing need for the government to continue prioritizing labor recovery programs that would help jumpstart the economy, given its worst crash recorded in nearly three decades.
Villanueva reminded that “more than the latest infusion of funds to finance the repatriation of OFWs, we continue to appeal to the government to expand further our effort to implement a variety of labor recovery programs and provide the necessary budget for these efforts to make it happen.”
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