According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment (DoLE), the government is deploying a $1 billion P scholarship fund this year for university-level dependents of Filipino staff (OFW) who have died or whose jobs have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Nicknamed “Tabang OFW”, the program is a school dependent on a repatriated, displaced or deceased OFW to obtain a single monetary aid of 30,000 P to increase its schooling expenses.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd said Saturday that more than 30,000 students, who rely on qualified OFWs, are expected to gain benefits from the program.
Bello said the program would be implemented jointly through the DoLE, the Higher Education Commission (CHEd) and the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Higher Education (UniFAST).
Bello stated that she had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on providing assistance with the president of CHEd and UniFAST, Prospero de Vera 3er.
Bello said aid is just one of many tactics in which the government is matching OFW’s contributions to the country.
“We hope this will do a lot to help our OFWs and their youth in these difficult times. By doing this, we also hope to reward some of our fashion heroes,” Bello added.
Under the agreement, the DoLE will factor orders, circulars or rules that will specify the effective and effective implementation of the program, adding proper use of funds, compliance with the same old government accounting and auditing rules, and reporting.
CHEd will budget a billion pesos to the DoLE for the implementation of the DWS Dependent Education Assistance Program.
UniFAST will advertise and disseminate Data on the DoLE program and paintings to expand the guidelines, policy and criteria for using tabang OFW grants.
To date, more than 220,000 OFWs affected by the Covid-19 pandemic have been repatriated through government.
The DoLE also provided single monetary assistance of 10,000 P or $200 under the ABot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) program to OFW whose income was affected by the pandemic, or were stranded in the country.
Bello said more OFW would gain advantages from the AKAP program after President Duterte signed Bayanihan to Recover As One Act or Bayanihan 2.
The Labour leader said there were other foreign labour markets for displaced FWOs, such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has resumed the acceptance and processing of paint visas; Qatar, which has abolished the “kafala” formula that requires migrant staff to unload permission from their employers if they wish to replace jobs; and the Kingdom of Bahrain, which has renewed the recruitment of domestic staff.
Other labor markets available to Filipinos include China, Japan, Czech Republic and Taiwan.
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