DOLE sets aside P3.93-M aid for typhoon victims

The Department of Labor and Employment has set aside a total of P3.93 million to help victims of Typhoons Pedring (Nesat) and Quiel (Nalgae) in Central Luzon last week, and Typhoon Mina in the Ilocos Region in August. In a statement issued Tuesday, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz approved the recommendation of Undersecretary Danilo Cruz for the release of an initial P3 million for Bulacan. "The initial amount of three million pesos will be used to pay for the wages of not less than a thousand workers/heads of families in Hagonoy, Calumpit, Obando, and Paombong for two weeks," Baldoz said. She said the emergency employment will be sourced from DOLE’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa mga Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD), a social amelioration program that helps disadvantages workers recover from emergencies and natural calamities. DOLE Central Luzon Regional Director Leopoldo de Jesus was instructed to coordinate with the local government units of the four towns and the provincial government of Bulacan. "The municipal LGUs have provided a counterpart of P100,000 for the emergency employment program, which amount is to be used for the preparation of the individual profiles of the beneficiaries and the conduct of needs assessment," the DOLE statement read. De Jesus said the beneficiaries will be employed to render rural public work, most of which will involve massive clean-up and repair of damaged roads, schools, barangay halls, municipal halls, and other government facilities. As of October 1, at least 2,131 families from the four towns were reported to have been evacuated to 43 evacuation centers during and after the floods; while 415,241 individuals in at least 81 barangays were affected by the typhoons, the statement said. Ilocos typhoon victims Meanwhile, Baldoz allowed the release of P930,000 in emergency employment assistance for victims of Typhoon Mina in the Ilocos region. Records from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council show that Mina left 35 people dead, 37 injured and eight missing when it struck northern Luzon in late August. "This is the initial amount that the DOLE Regional Office has requested to pay for the wages of 375 farmers and fishermen in 15 municipalities of Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and La Union this October," Baldoz said in a separate statement issued Tuesday. DOLE Region 1 Director Henry John Jalbuena reported an immediate need to assist the informal sector workers, the region being mostly agricultural, so they can recover from the calamity, the same statement said. "The local governments in those areas are providing a counterpart funding of P232,500 for the emergency employment program," Jalbuena said. The workers to be employed will come from: