KALIBO, Aklan, Sept. 24 (PIA) -- The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is ready to extend help to Aklanons who lost their jobs in Boracay Island due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was the assurance of DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III to Ijabay, Aklan mayor Jose Enrique Miraflores during the Sept. 23 edition of Laging Handa Network Briefing aired live over Radyo Pilipinas, where the mayor was one of the featured guests.
During the interaction between Sec. Bello and Miraflores in the program hosted by Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Jose Martin Andanar, the mayor revealed that a month ago, he went to barangays to have a talk with the respective councils, where he discovered that 80-percent of his constituents are dependent on the tourism industry in Aklan carried by Boracay Island.
Most of them, according to Miraflores, are involved in construction, or as hotel and restaurant staff, and in various businesses in the island but are now jobless.
To this, Secretary Bello assured the mayor of the agency’s readiness to help the town’s displaced workers.
“Mayor, ang sa mga informal workers, mag submit ka lang ng 500 pangalan ng mga informal workers ninyo diyan sa Ibajay at sila ay bibigyan natin nga trabaho sa loob ng sampung araw at tatanggap ng sweldo na ayon sa minimum wage sa inyong lugar,” Bello said to Miraflores.
Bello also told Miraflores that formal workers will also be given cash assistance by the DOLE and will give preference to hotel and restaurant workers.
The town executive thanked the Secretary for this good news and said he will right away inform the Municipal Inter-Agency Task Force about this and will submit the list to either the DOLE Provincial or Regional office once the the names from Ibajay barangays are submitted.
Bello also asked Miraflores to inform Overseas Filipino Worker (OFWs) of Ibajay that the government has half-a-billion-peso livelihood funds for them “para hindi na sila mangangapa ng trabaho at mag negosyo na lang sila.”
The top labor official also said children of these OFWs could also be given scholarships.
Happy over this information, Miraflores assured Secretary Bello to tell this good news not only to OFWs in Ibajay but in the whole province of Aklan.
Meanwhile, Regilyn Turnino of RMN-DYKR, the local media partner in the program edition, also asked Bello about DOLE’s lined-up assistance to formal workers who do not belong to the tourism industry but were also affected by the pandemic and lost their jobs.
The DOLE official said that these workers will also be aided by the government and said she could also submit names of workers who could be given cash assistance.
Aside from Miraflores, Sangguniang Kabataan-Aklan Federation president Blerssie Jizmundo also shared during the Laging Handa Network Briefing episode the SK’s programs and projects for the Aklanon youth especially in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. (JBG/JSC/VGV/PIA6 Aklan)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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