A total of 155,672 employees from 4,290 tourism-related enterprises affected by the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis have received their cash assistance under the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBSW) program of the Department of Finance (DOF), Social Security System (SSS), and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) as of May 4.
Since March, the Department of Tourism (DOT) has been seeking the assistance of various national government agencies to extend their services to the tourism sector, one of the hardest hit industries of the coronavirus disease pandemic.
“We are grateful to the DOF, SSS and BIR for providing our affected tourism workers with a monthly wage subsidy for two months.”
“We are grateful to the DOF, SSS and BIR for providing our affected tourism workers with a monthly wage subsidy for two months,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.
“With tourism hampered, and eventually closed during the first five months of the year, these cash grants will go a long way in helping them weather this period while travel restrictions are still in effect,” Romulo-Puyat added.
As of May 4, the SSS, through its partnership with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), has uploaded to PESOnet or DBP Pera Padala, through MLhuillier Financial Services, the partner-remittance center of the SSS, the following beneficiaries: 155,126 employees of 4,723 employers in the hotel and restaurant industry and 546 employees of 17 air transport industry employers.
“The SBWS aims to provide a monthly wage subsidy to around 3.4 million eligible employees of small businesses affected by the economic standstill.”
According to a recent press release by the DOF, the SBWS aims to provide a monthly wage subsidy ranging from P5,000 to P8,000 for two months to around 3.4 million eligible employees of small businesses affected by the economic standstill after separate quarantine measures were imposed nationwide in March to stop the further spread of COVID-19.
The subsidy, given in tranches, depends on the minimum wage levels in the respective regions.