OFWs displaced by COVID-19 pandemic to get one-time ₱10,000 cash aid

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8) -- Overseas Filipino workers displaced in foreign countries on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic will receive one-time financial assistance worth ₱10,000, the Department of Labor and Employment said.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the release of a ₱1.5-billion fund to the department for the financial support of displaced OFWs.

“This assistance program is good until the available funds are used up,” Bello said.
Land-based and sea-based workers will be given the cash assistance amounting to $200, or the equivalent amount in their host countries, through DOLE's Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) program.

Bello said the program will cover both documented and undocumented workers, provided they have undertaken actions to regularize their contracts, or are members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), an attached agency of DOLE.
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OFWs infected with the disease are also eligible for AKAP as long as they have not received any form of financial assistance from their host government or foreign employers yet.

Read more: CNN Philippines