A total of 5,250 workers in Western Visayas displaced by Typhoon Frank will avail of an employment assistance program from the Department of Labor and Employment, the agency said yesterday.

The DOLE adjustment measures program will be activated to fund the emergency employment and livelihood program for affected workers who lost their jobs and livelihood.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said in a statement agency personnel in Western Visayas have been mobilized to identify target beneficiaries in coordination with local government units and other inter-agency groups.

Under the first component that will provide the beneficiaries with emergency employment, 1,650 workers will be hired for the clearing and de-clogging operations and reconstruction efforts like repairs of damaged infrastructure such as school buildings, daycare center, drainage, irrigation system, and farm-to-market roads.

Also, 3,600 affected workers will benefit from the second component that will assist the beneficiaries in reviving their means of livelihood through acquisition of farm implements, carpentry tools, cooking wares, repair kits, and even farm animals that had been lost to the typhoon.

Roque said workers who lost their income and livelihood sources like farm implements and animals due to the calamity will be prioritized especially those whose properties were destroyed and those formerly engaged in a particular craft or skill.

Organized craftsmen or women in a particular productive trade and subsistence workers collectively operating a handicraft or micro-enterprise will also be prioritized, he added.

Roque said it is essential to help subsistence workers meet their survival needs through the restoration of their livelihood to enable them regain their productivity and quickly graduate from being dependent to relief efforts.

The DOLE assistance to the affected workers will be channeled through accredited co-partners, he said.*

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