BAGUIO CITY—The Department of Labor and Employment has released an initial P35 million in financial assistance for those who were affected by Typhoon “Lawin” in Northern Luzon.
Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the P30 million will cover at least 69,000 families of overseas Filipino workers while the remaining P5 million will be for emergency employment assistance for some 1,600 workers displaced by the typhoon in Cagayan Valley.
He said labor officials in Region 2 are now profiling the affected workers.
The initial beneficiaries will be employed in short term but productive jobs under Dole’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced workers, a support program for workers and their families who are victims of natural calamities and disasters.
“Although this is just temporary employment, this will provide our workers and their families immediate relief from the calamity by giving them income, and at the same time enlist them for the rehabilitation, clearing and cleaning of their affected communities,” Bello said.
“Emergency employment can also be created through the repair and restoration of damaged infrastructure or rehabilitation of basic service facilities, including rural works, such as the clearing of canals and waterways and cleanup of public spaces,” Bello added.
Displaced workers who will be hired under the emergency employment program will be paid the prevailing minimum wage rate in the region which is P300 per day, or a total of P3,000 per worker for a 10-day period.
Meanwhile, Bello said representatives from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Regions 1, 2, and the Cordillera Administrative Region are validating the actual number of OFW families affected by the typhoon.
“The P30 million will just be an initial wave of assistance to the surveyed families of OFWs who were affected by the super typhoon. We will be working out the release of more financial assistance to them once concerned government agencies shall have submitted their complete report on the actual number of families affected and the extent of the damage they suffered as well as the kind of assistance they need,” he said.