DOLE: COVID-19 displaces over 300,000 OFWs, 70,000 local workers

Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III revealed that more than 300,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were left jobless because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So far, the recorded affected (OFWs) because of COVID-19 is 300,021,” Bello said on Wednesday.

The secretary added that 191,000 of the affected OFWs chose to stay where they are until everything normalizes. DOLE has given them an allowance $200 to help them through. About 62,000 OFWs sought repatriation.

Bello also said around 44,000 OFWs are expected to return to the Philippines once they finish processing their papers. The government has already repatriated 16,679 OFWs from May to June this year all of whom were given P10,000 before they were brought home. 

Bello,meanwhile clarified that the actual number of locally-based Filipino workers left unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic was only around 70,000 and not 7.3 million.

He said 7.3 million was just the projected figure by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) based on a survey it conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The actual number is 69,022 workers. These workers were affected by the closure of 2,068 business establishments.

The secretary meanwhile said his department is planning an emergency employment program which will give informal employees three to six months emergency employment to help them during the pandemic.

Bello further added that the Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy of the Philippines (ARISE Philippines) Act will provide employers with 25 to 50 percent subsidy provided that they will not lay off employees, but instead hire more.