BUSINESS groups in Cebu are lobbying for additional funds for the Department of Labor and Employment’s (Dole) financial aid program for workers in Central Visayas who have lost their income due to the Covid-19 crisis.
In a joint statement Wednesday, May 13, 2020, Cebu business leaders have lamented the discontinuing of Dole’s Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (Camp), which aided workers of companies that have temporarily shut operations.
“Discontinuing the program due to lack of funds would create confusion and emotional stress from affected workers, especially during this pandemic where they have no source of income due to temporary closure or shutdown,” read the statement signed by the presidents of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Philippine Retailers Association-Cebu, Cebu Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Mactan Export Processing Zone Chamber of Exporters and Manufacturers.
According to Dole, Central Visayas has a total budget of P158.09 million for the Camp which extended cash aid to 31,618 workers from 1,403 companies across the region.
But that only benefitted about 17 percent of the workers in the region, the statement said.
“Workers are banking on the committed subsidy as it is of big help to them in alleviating their current plight,” the business groups said.
“Closing the program arbitrarily will be perceived as selective and run counter to its original objective of helping the marginalized workers,” they added.
Business leaders noted the workers’ vital role in economic growth.
“Our productive sector deserves better treatment from the very government to whom they have religiously remitted their taxes. This sows greater unrest which we do not need right now,” they said.
The program fund allocation, according to the business groups, should have been set based on Dole’s actual data on working population in Region 7.
“In this most trying of times to all members of society, it becomes almost cruel and insensitive to be given hope of alleviation, only soon after to be deprived of such hope,” the traders further said.
The business community expressed uncertainty on their eventual recovery after the crisis.