A total of 150 sugar workers in four barangays of Tanjay, Negros Oriental, benefited from the Tulong-Pangkabuhayan sa Ating Disadvantaged Workers program of the Department of Labor and Employment.
Vivencio Lagahid, officer-in-charge of DOLE–Dumaguete, handed checks totaling P624,000 as monetary assistance to sugar workers affected by tropical storm “Sendong”, at turnover rites held in Tanjay City recently.
The sugar workers came from Barangay Manipis with 82, Brgy. Tugas, 26; Brgy. Poblacion III, 16; and Brgy. Poblacion IV, 26.
Manipis, which has the most number of affected sugar workers, received the biggest share of P246,000, for 15 days of work at a daily rate of P200. Tugas and Poblacion IV each received P156,000, and Pob. III with P96,000, for 30 days of work.
The DOLE had earlier released P13.02 million for workers displaced by Sendong and the 6.9-magnitude earthquake in affected areas in Central Visayas under the TUPAD program, a press release from the department said.
Funds for the TUPAD came from DOLE’s Adjustment Measures Program and the capability-building program of the Sugar Tripartite Council. It aims to help the displaced workers recover from natural calamities, by providing them with short-term wage employment as immediate source of income for their day-to-day living.
Negros Oriental Provincial Board Member Mellimore Saycon, who raised the concern of sugar workers to the STC, meanwhile, assured the barangays not included in the funding assistance of DOLE, that the STC will also extend assistance to calamity-hit sugar workers.
He urged barangay captains to be prompt in complying with the requirements of government programs that extend aid to disaster victims in their areas.*RG
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