CEBU CITY, Philippines — Workers who belong to the formal sector who have yet to apply for financial assistance under the Covid Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) could no longer do so.
The Department of Labor and Employment announced on Thursday, April 16 that it has suspended the acceptance of applications for CAMP.
The department announced the suspension, which took effect at 5 p.m. of April 15, in a statement posted on its website.
The labor department noted that it had been swamped with volumes of requests, adding that the available fund for the program amounting to P1.6 billion is very close to being depleted.
“Since the implementation of CAMP from March 23 to date, DOLE was able to provide the one-time P5,000 assistance to 236,412 workers from 10,663 establishments, with total cash disbursements of P1.2 billion. We have yet to pay 85,563 more workers in the coming days,” it revealed.
“We seek the full understanding of employers and workers who were unable to receive the assistance,” the statement said.
According to DOLE, the request for CAMP assistance ‘ballooned beyond the capacity’ of its resources.
The situation was aggravated by the extension of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) up to April 30, DOLE explained.
However, DOLE revealed that it is now working closely with other agencies, including Congress, for an immediate alternative program to help ease the burden on the greater number of workers who did not benefit from CAMP.
“Our regional operations had enormous challenges in attending to the 1.6 million CAMP applications nationwide, but we are happy to extend assistance to those who had received the cash aid,” the DOLE statement further stated.
According to DOLE, it is now fast tracking its recovery plan for workers and employers so they could cope with the “new normal” after the ECQ.
“We are preparing a menu of programs that will complement national efforts to effectively address the needs of the people,” DOLE added./rcg