Cebu City’s displaced workers urged to join DOLE’s BKBK livelihood program

A worker from the Department of Public Services of Cebu City disinfects Colon Street in this March 31, 2020 photo. | photo courtesy of DPS

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City residents who lost their sources of income due to the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) are encouraged to join the Barangay Ko Bahay Ko (BKBK) program of the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas (DOLE-7).

DOLE-7 regional director, Salome Siaton in a statement sent to the Cebu City Council, said the BKBK is a sanitation program aimed to help displaced workers due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The main duty of BKBK beneficiaries is to sanitize their assigned areas, which will be determined by the DOLE and the barangays. The area should be the immediate surroundings of their homes.

They will clean the area, disinfect, and work four hours a day in a ten-day program in exchange for a minimum wage of P404. Beneficiaries will receive their first payment after five days.

“This is why we need the barangays. We need to identify who can avail of the BKBK. We don’t have the numbers yet and the barangay can help us because they know their constituents well,” said Siaton.

If an individual is interested, he/she can also volunteer at his/her barangay.

Qualified persons include those who lost their livelihood because of the ECQ, self-employed individuals such as freelancers or owners of businesses that were ordered closed for the ECQ, and underemployed individuals with less than full-time jobs.

Those who are working as transport drivers (jeepney, tricycle, pedicab), street vendors, construction workers, owners of small businesses, occasional workers, house helpers, farmers, and fishermen may qualify for the DOLE TUPAD #BKBK Project as long as they meet the requirements.

However, households who received the P5,000 financial assistance from DOLE CAMP, those who received cash assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), farmers who received cash assistance from Department of Agriculture (DA), beneficiaries of P8,000 and above from their Local Government Unit (LGU), and government employees cannot avail of the program.

Siation urged Cebu City residents to avail of the program so they can at least have a source of income while the ECQ continues.  /rcg