ONLY one in every four overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) seeking cash assistance from the Philippine government have so far been approved for the one-time P10,000 or $200 aid.
Based on a report of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), 85,849 OFWs were found qualified for the cash assistance under the “DOLE-AKAP for OFWs” program, as of May 1.
This is 25.5 percent of the 336,809 applications filed by OFWs, who were displaced from their jobs due to lockdowns in their host countries or stranded by the community quarantine in the Philippines.
“Of the approved requests, 54,602 were processed on-site or in various Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs) and 31,247 were evaluated by Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA),” said DOLE.
And of those whose applications were approved, DOLE said it has disbursed P482.9 million to 47,239 qualified OFWs.
They are composed of the 26,500 on-site OFWs, whose assistance totaled P275.6 million and have been disbursed by the different POLOs.
For OFWs stranded in the country, OWWA has released to 20,739 OFWs the amount of P207.3 million.
The “DOLE-AKAP for OFWs” is a P1.5-billion emergency aid program looking to provide cash assistance to a total of 150,000 OFWs.
