DOLE lists more than 200K OFWS for AKAP cash assistance program
OVER 200,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) have applied for the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AK AP) since the cash assistance program was launched early this month.
However, only 12 percent of the said applicants have qualified for a one-time $200 (or P10,000) government cash-aid program for OFWS, whose employment were affected by the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The rest are still going through the screening process.
“So far we have only paid 18,000 [applicants]. That is worth P180 million, or only over 10 percent out of total budget,” Bello said in a phone interview.
AKAP has a total budget allocation of P1.5 billion and is expected to benefit 150,000 qualified OFWS. Application continuation
DUE to the sheer number of applicants, especially abroad, some Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), particularly those from Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, have issued advisories this week suspending on-site application for AKAP.
DOLE’S Information and Publication Service (IPS) also released a news statement at around 3 p.m. on Wednesday stating on-site applications for AKAP in all POLOS have been suspended. The statement was retracted by IPS two hours later.
Bello said he ordered the POLOS to continue accepting on-site applications since they still have over P1.3 million remaining funds.
“There will be no quota [in accepting applications]. We will just [continue] accepting the applications, but we will give the caveat that only 150,000 of them will be accommodated. We will just make it clear to them that if they qualify, then we will give them the cash aid,” Bello said. Additional funds
THE labor chief said DOLE may request for additional funding for AKAP once they exhaust its existing allocated funds.
“If we already used up our funds and we will see there are still many who are qualified that is the time we will make the request. But for now, it is premature,” Bello said.
The program covers not only documented OFWS and balik manggagawa, or returning OFWS, but as well as those classified as undocumented.
OFWS if they fall under the following conditions: originally documented workers but for some reason have lost their regular status; not registered by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) or whose contracts were not processed by the said agency, or the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, but have undertaken actions to regularize their contracts/status, or active members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration at the time of availment.
To qualify for AKAP, applicants must also have experienced jobs displacement due to the receiving country’s imposition of lockdown, or community quarantine, or have been infected with Covid-19.
They must be still at the overseas jobsites, in the Philippines as returning OFW, or have been repatriated as well as not have receive any financial support/assistance from their receiving countries, or employers, to avail of AKAP.