Gov’t to give cash aid to small businesses’ employees – officials

April 15, 2020

The Philippine government has earmarked P51 billion to assist 3.4 million employees of small businesses in the country.

The financial aid to staff of the small and medium enterprises was approved during a meeting of President Rodrigo Duterte with the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on Monday night.

Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua said this financial assistance is the government's answer on the calls to provide aid also to the middle income class.

"So apart from the 205 billion pesos that we're giving to the informal sector or low-income, we are going to give --- we are proposing to give 51 billion pesos to the employees of small businesses," Chua said during the televised meeting with Duterte on Monday night.

In a virtual press briefing on Tuesday, IATF Spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said this "Small Business Wage Subsidy" would be given in two tranches similar to the Social Amelioration Program for the low-income families.

He said the first tranche will be on May 1 to 15 and the second on May 16 to 30.

Similar to SAP of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program of the Department of Labor and Employment, each beneficiary will receive P5,000 to P8,000 for each tranche depending on the wage rate per region.

But Nograles clarified that those who benefited from CAMP or other cash assistance program of the government would not receive anything from the small business subsidy.

For an employee to receive the subsidy, Nograles said he must be employed in the company as of March 1 up to present and the employer has not paid his salary.

"Our priority are those businesses that are registered and applying the SSS (Social Security System) and registered with the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue). But even those not registered with SSS and BIR, we will also find ways," he added. Celerina Monte/DMS