The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced Thursday the suspension of accepting financial assistance applications under the COVID Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) for formal sector workers. The online application has been closed since 5 PM, April 15.   “The labor department has been swamped with volumes of requests that the available fund for the program amounting to P1.6 billion is very close to being depleted,” the statement reads. Since the implementation of CAMP on March 23, the labor agency has been swamped with thousands of applications that the available fund is now nearly exhausted, especially now with the extension of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) up to 30 April. “[F]rom 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 Php1.2 billion. We have yet to pay 85,563 more workers in the coming days,” DOLE stated. However, DOLE continues to coordinate closely with other agencies 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,” DOLE added.   Read the full statement below:

 

DOLE X

Meanwhile, for those who were included in the list of approved applications (see the list here), DOLE Region 10 strives “to cater as many workers as possible with the allocated CAMP budget.” “For applications (both approved and those currently being evaluated) which can no longer be funded, DOLE-X will continue to process and work closely with the Department of Finance (DOF) for possible assistance under its Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) Program,” DOLE X stated.   The labor agency prepares programs that will be implemented after the ECQ to aid the recovery of workers and employers during the recovery and transition to the “new normal”.     —(Source: Department of Labor and Employment)