If you are a technical crew, production or post-production staff, stunt person, actor, dubber, or any other freelance audio-visual (AV) content worker with a “no work, no pay” status whose work was abruptly canceled or postponed as a direct result of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation, then you can apply for the DEAR ACTION! financial assistance worth P8,000 from the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).
As an immediate response to the COVID-19 crisis, FDCP launched DEAR which stands for Disaster/Emergency Assistance and Relief. FDCP set up the DEAR Program by reallocating budget from its existing funds to help ease the burden of disaster-affected AV industry stakeholders not only during this current public health emergency situation but also in the event of future calamities and emergencies. The DEAR Program will only be activated once the President of the Republic of the Philippines declares a state of calamity due to a major natural disaster or public health emergency.
The DEAR Program was first activated on March 23, and under it is the DEAR ACTION! (For Displaced Freelance AV Workers) program that aims to give P8,000 financial assistance to freelance AV content industry members who suddenly lost work or became out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic that caused the Enhanced Community Quarantine implementation in Luzon and declaration of a national state of calamity.
In order to be a qualified DEAR ACTION! applicant, you must have had five work days (whether pre-production, production, or post-production) that were cancelled or postponed within the period of March 15 to April 14. You also must not have a direct employer and you must not be qualified for government-instituted benefits. Due to the limited funds of FDCP, the initial run of DEAR ACTION! will provide income support to 2,000 workers. While DEAR ACTION! is open to eligible disaster-affected freelance AV content workers, FDCP reserves the right to prioritize low-income individuals during its initial disbursement of funds. Low-income individuals are those whose talent fee is around P3,000 or less per day or have a package rate of P20,000 or less per project.
FDCP has already been accepting numerous inquiries and applications for the DEAR ACTION! financial assistance. You still have a lot of time to file a claim because the deadline for submission of applications is on April 24.
For more details, Contact the FDCP National Registry, the implementing office of the DEAR Program, at dearnationalregistry@fdcp.ph or 0917-8003227, or visit http://fdcp.ph/dear-program .