Close to 200,000 workers had received cash assistance from the government’s assistance programs to mitigate the impact of the national health emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Labor and Employment said.

In a press release, DOLE said about PHP622 million in assistance funds had been disbursed to beneficiaries of the Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD)-Barangay ko, Bahay Ko (BKBK) program.

As of April 4, DOLE said some 102,895 formal sector workers had received the P5,000 cash assistance under CAMP while close to 80,000 workers in the informal sector benefitted from TUPAD BKBK program.

The accelerated release of assistance came following the directive of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III last week for DOLE officials to ease the requirements in the submission of establishment reports for the processing of the cash assistance.

DOLE said it hopes to aid more than 350,000 formal and informal sector workers by the middle of the month utilizing over PHP1.5 billion in assistance funds under CAMP and TUPAD.

The labor department said it would need another PHP5 billion for the remainder of the month to help more workers affected by the Covid-19 crisis which has ballooned to more than 600,000 based on DOLE’s field monitoring reports.