DOLE suspends applications for OFW aid program

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has suspended the acceptance of applications for the Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong program for overseas Filipino workers.

The announcement was made after the Labor department exceeded the target beneficiaries of 150,000 OFWs.

"We will have to stop accepting applications," Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in an interview.

"We have already put on hold the program because we already have (exceeded) our allocation, which is only for 150,000 OFWs," he added.

According to DOLE, it received more than 400,000 applications for AKAP, a total of 142,550 of which have been approved.

The DOLE earlier said overseas workers, both land-based and seabased, who have been displaced by a lockdown in a foreign country will be given a one-time financial assistance amounting to ₱10,000 or USD200, or the equivalent amount in their host countries, under the AKAP program.

The program seeks to assist about 150,000 OFWs on-site or in host countries affected by lockdowns and those in the Philippines who are unable to return to their destinations.

In a virtual press briefing Tuesday, Bello revealed that they already requested for additional ₱2.5 billion funding for the program in order to accommodate more OFWs.