The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation assured the public it is committed to pay benefits due all Covid-19 patients regardless of their admission date, upholding its earlier announcement that it pays at cost until April 14, and through its new case rate packages starting April 15 onwards.

rappler.com (15.04.2020) Just like many COVID-19 patients fighting for their lives, what the Philippine economy needs right now is a sturdy ventilator for life support. But at the rate government is distributing aid, our economy’s ventilator seems dismally broken. On March 25, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act. This chiefly authorized him to marshal resources to fight COVID-19. That law also mandated government to hand out disaster relief.

owwa.gov.ph (20.03.2020)

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) supported Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) affected by the travel ban due to COVID-19 as well as those who were repatriated with cash transfers. P10,000 cash assistance, drawn from the OWWA Trust Fund of member-OFWs, was given to each stranded OWWA member-OFW (distributed through OWWA regional welfare offices). Said assistance aims to “help stranded OFWs ease their burden and assist them back to their places of origin” during the travel ban.

pnl-law.com (28.03.2020) The Government provide compensation of One Hundred Thousand Pesos (P100,000.00) to public and private health workers who may contract severe COVID-19 infection while in the line of duty, and a compensation of One Million Pesos (P1,000,000.00) to the families of public and private health workers, who may die while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. This benefit has a retroactive application from 01 February 2020.

philstar.com (17.03.2020) The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has temporarily suspended the cash grants to beneficiaries of its poverty alleviation program in order to help prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The agency suspended the payouts for the  Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps),  social pension and unconditional cash transfer (UCT) for indigents as well as the distribution of 4Ps cash cards and field surveys for the 2019 National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction or the Listahanan.

businessmirror.com.ph (13.02.2020) AS the country’s so-called gig economy industry continues to rise, lawmakers are pushing for measures to protect freelance workers by establishing a basic regulatory framework to enable them to anticipate challenges ahead.

Manila Bulletin Business (05.10.2019) More than 50 cooperatives and associations nationwide joined the Social Security System (SSS) on its fourth multi-sectoral forum aiming to promote the pension fund’s programs for self-employed workers in the informal sector.

onenews.ph (19.09.2019) “Empowering our elderly through universal social pension will also contribute to the reduction of poverty and inequality, provide transformative support to ordinary families, and further stimulate the economy,” Sen. Risa Hontiveros said.

Philippine News Agency (09.09.2019) The country’s chief economist expects the implementation of the national identification (ID) system to improve the targeting of beneficiaries of social protection program meant to uplift the lives of the poor.

Philstar.com (22.05.2019) President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law a measure that institutionalizes a cash transfer program that aims to address poverty and to improve the health and education of poor children.