Duterte: Small business workers in 7 regions ineligible for second tranche of cash aid

By VIRGIL LOPEZ, GMA News, 8 Jun 2020

Workers of small businesses based in seven regions are not covered by the second tranche of the COVID-19 emergency subsidy, President Rodrigo Duterte told Congress on Monday.

Excluded from the second tranche were the beneficiaries of the Department of Labor and Employment’s cash assistance in Regions IV-B, V, VIII, IX and XII as well as the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Duterte said these workers were deemed ineligible because the cash aid was equal to the labor department’s subsidy of P5,000.

Under the guidelines of the Small Business Wage Subsidy program, beneficiaries of the Labor department’s COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) will also receive subsidy during the second tranche minus the P5,000 already received under the CAMP.

According to the Department of Finance, 193,000 out of 680,000 CAMP beneficiaries benefitted from the first tranche of the Small Business Wage Subsidy program.

As of June 4, the Social Security System had released the subsidy to 2.99 million employees for the first tranche and 1.01 million workers for the second tranche. The program aims to cover 3.4 million employees.

The P51-billion financial assistance ranges from P5,000 to P8,000 per tranche for every beneficiary, depending on the minimum wage levels in their respective regions. -NB, GMA News