The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Wednesday said it will prioritize programs aimed at providing job security and social protection for both local and migrant workers in the remaining months of the Duterte administration.

“Our final act to demonstrate the ability of President Rodrigo Duterte to preserve employment and provide social amelioration for all workers, both informal, formal and overseas, we plan to implement policies and programs that will provide security of tenure to our workers and also provide our overseas workers necessary protection through social protection as well as social amelioration programs,” said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III in a press briefing of the Pamana ng Pagbabago: The 2021 Pre-State of the Nation Address (SONA) Virtual Presser Forum of the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster.

Bello also reported that the DOLE has adopted a number of policies and measures to protect workers that resulted in a decrease in unemployment and underemployment.

“As of today, we were able to reduce the percentage by 1.1 in terms of unemployment and another 1.4 percent in terms of underemployment,” he added.

He said the government was also able to address the displacement of workers in the formal and informal sectors as well as overseas Filipino workers due to the pandemic through several amelioration programs.

Bello said these include the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), and the Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP).

“One of the most popular programs which is the TUPAD, and emergency employment program where our informal workers are provided with 10 to 30 days emergency work and they are paid the minimum wage in the region where they are hired,” he said.

Formal sector workers were also provided with one-time cash assistance of PHP5,000 under CAMP, Bello added.

“In terms of formal workers, those employed, who were displaced permanently, temporarily, some were retrenched, some were given what we call the flexible working arrangement which resulted in the reduction of their working hours,” he said.

Meanwhile, displaced OFWs who are in the country or are still in their host countries got cash assistance under the AKAP.

“For our OFWs, we were able to provide them the program which we call AKAP, under this program we gave all displaced OFWs a cash assistance of US$200 for those in site OFWs, who are still abroad but for those who went back to the country, we provided them the equivalent of PHP10,000,” Bello added. (PNA)