The Quezon City government on Tuesday launched its Alagang QC for Displaced Workers, a financial assistance program for unemployed residents.
Mayor Joy Belmonte spearheaded the cash aid program for employees or workers who had been jobless over the last six months prior to their application, and are now actively looking for new employment.
“This program is our way to help our QCitizens who have been badly affected by the (COVID-19) pandemic and the economic crisis. They can use the financial assistance to support their family while looking for a new job or while retrieving the requirements being asked of them,” Belmonte said.
Workers who has been unemployed for the past six months is eligible for a P500-financial assistance per week for a maximum of eight weeks, for a total of P4,000.
For this year alone, the city allotted P60 million for the program.
The Public Employment Service Office is the implementing agency with the responsibility of facilitating online applications through the Quezon City e-Services Website (http://qceservices.quezoncity.gov.ph).
The first batch of beneficiaries included 25 displaced workers from Colegio de San Lorenzo, formerly faculty members, administrative staff and utility workers who were directly affected by the school’s recent closure due to the low turn-out of enrollees and the pandemic’s aftereffects.
PESO has identified 25 repatriated OFW beneficiaries.
The initiative is a first of its kind in the country as the local government emphasized the importance of labor as the main driver of the economy and to pave the way for economic rehabilitation and recovery.
Meanwhile, Belmonte and the Department of Health-Metro Manila Center for Health Development regional director Gloria Balboa yesterday led the launch of the PinasLakas vaccination drive at Commonwealth Market.
DOH’s PinasLakas is a setting-based vaccination program that aims to vaccinate Filipinos and give booster shots to fully-vaccinated residents in a bid to strengthen the country’s wall of immunity.
Over 500 market vendors and nearby residents of Commonwealth Market received their primary and booster doses during the activity.
Through the program, the city was also able to invite Muslim leaders to promote the importance of COVID-19 vaccination for their vaccine-hesitant brothers and sisters.
