Cebuano workers benefit from P25.8-M aid from DOLE

CEBU CITY – Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III led the distribution of wages and financial assistance amounting to PHP25.8 million to thousands of workers and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in southern Cebu on Friday and Saturday.

A statement on Sunday said Bello and the DOLE team headed to the town of Balamban on Saturday to distribute the reference codes for the salaries of 1,710 workers under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD) program worth PHP6.9 million as well as for some 711 workers in the municipality of Asturias in the amount of PHP2.9 million.

They also visited Toledo City, where Bello led the release of TUPAD wages to 1,278 workers amounting to PHP5.16 million and financial assistance from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to 43 OFWs in the amount of PHP650,000.

On Friday, the agency released more than PHP10 million to TUPAD workers in the towns of Barili and Aloguinsan.

Some PHP4.6 million was also released to 158 parents of profiled child laborers in Barili for their livelihood starter kits.

Each one will receive a livelihood assistance package worth PHP16,000 to PHP30,000, which they could use as capital for their livelihood projects such as general merchandising, cattle and swine fattening, goat raising, and buy and sell, among others.

“You don’t have to thank us for this assistance because they don’t come from us. They come from your (taxpayers) money,” Bello said in Cebuano before the hundreds of workers including key leaders of Cebu province who witnessed the awarding of financial assistance held at the Barili Sports Complex and the Alodome Sports Complex in Aloguinsan.

In Barili, apart from the parents of the child laborers benefiting from the Kabuhayan Program, some 1,103 workers in the informal economy also received their salaries and wages under TUPAD worth a total of PHP4.46 million.

Bello also distributed the wages of 10 more TUPAD beneficiaries under the provincial government of Cebu amounting to PHP40,400 as well as financial assistance from OWWA to 34 OFWs from Barili and Dumanjug in the amount of PHP570,000.

In Aloguinsan, he released PHP408,040 that covered the wages of about 101 TUPAD workers in the municipality and PHP40,400 for 10 more TUPAD beneficiaries under the provincial government.

Meanwhile, nine OFWs from Aloguinsan and Pinamungajan received their financial assistance from OWWA amounting to PHP150,000.

DOLE-7 Director Salome Siaton said the total amount released to beneficiaries in Barili and Aloguinsan, and the OFW-beneficiaries from Dumanjug and Pinamungajan amounted to PHP10.26 million.

Joining Bello in the two-day assistance distribution and payout were Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Rep. Pablo John Garcia, DOLE Undersecretary Renato Ebarle, Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns Director Lawyer Ma. Karina Perida-Trayvilla, Siaton, DOLE-7 Assistant Regional Director Lawyer Jude Thomas Trayvilla, OWWA-7 OIC-Regional Director Mae Codilla and the local chief executives of the municipalities involved. (PNA)

 

News Feed:

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148214
Latest News | Philippine News Agency