Philippine President Duterte approves additional P5-B fund to help Filipino expats

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the release of an additional P5-billion fund to help Filipino expats across the world weather the Covid-19 crisis.

The country's labour secretary, Silvestre Bello III, on Sunday said half of this fund will go to the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) AKAP programme - the one-time Dh730 cash aid extended to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who lost their livelihood to the pandemic.

Across the world, nearly 600,000 OFWs have been seeking government assistance, but the initial DOLE AKAP fund was meant only for 250,000.

In Dubai and the Northern Emirates alone, over 80,000 cash aid applications had been received, but allocations were only for 22,000.

Now that the additional P2.5 billion fund had been approved for the programme, more OFWs are expected to receive the Dh730 aid, the labour secretary said.

The Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate-General in Dubai said they are awaiting guidelines on how the budget will be disbursed.

"The overseas Filipino communities around the world welcome this development as it highlights the Philippine government's commitment to assist all Filipinos in a crisis such as this pandemic. The Embassy and the Consulate await further guidelines and instructions from the Department of Foreign Affairs and DOLE in this regard," the missions said in a joint statement.

Philippine Overseas Labor Offices and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) had processed and approved the applications of 267,584 OFWs under the programme.

"The initial P2.5-billion AKAP fund is almost completely depleted with assistance already provided to more than 233,000 land-based and sea-based workers, with disbursed amount of P2.388 billion as of August 8," the labour department said.

Expats' benefits

A huge part of the fund will also be released for the repatriation of OFWs who have been displaced because of lockdowns and closure of establishments, Bello said.

Aside from sponsoring flights, OWWA shoulders the cost of Covid tests of expats upon their arrival in the country, as well as their food and accommodation in hotels while awaiting test results. It also pays for their transport to provinces, once they tested negative for the virus.

The agency has so far sent home close to 130,000 OFWs since May 15 via land, sea and air transport.