AT least 742 claimants in Davao Region are eligible for Covid-19 financial assistance of at least P10,000 from the Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) under the Department of Labor and Employment in Davao Region.
The Employee’s Compensation (EC) Claims are intended for employees who would acquire sickness, injury, or death at work but only 50 of the 742 claimants are non-Covid-19 related.
The claimants can receive P10,000 for sickness claims and P15,000 for death claims.
Albert Bantan, public information officer of ECC-Davao, said on Friday, March 17 that there are still a lot of pending claims that may be approved in the coming weeks.
“The ECC was not expecting the bulk of claims from Covid-19 cases so there was a time we had to suspend our receiving of applications due to the depletion of our funds. But recently, we were able to replenish the funds,” Bantan said.
Mark Kevin Ligada, one of the beneficiaries of the P10,000 sickness claim, said he received his claim on March 17 for acquiring Covid-19 in 2021.
He said his company conducted a rapid test and RT-PCR test where he tested positive in both occasions.
“Nakuha nako sa work kay one of the maintenance saamoa, siya ang una nag positive (I caught Covid-19 at work where one of our maintenance personnel was the first who tested positive). Ang plano nako sa akong claim kay i-add na nako sa capital sa akong negosyo (I plan to sue my claim for my business),” Ligada said.
As of December 2022, 10,537 beneficiaries nationwide were granted cash assistance worth P105.84 million. A total of 9,946 of the approved applications are related to Covid-19. ICM