The Department of Labor and Employment in Western Visayas (DOLE-6) has released P5.985 million in emergency employment aid to marginalized workers in Negros Occidental since October, it said in a report yesterday.

The assistance benefited some 1,329 recipients from various local government units under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program.

“We recognize the impact of the program to the daily needs of the beneficiaries and their families, and the benefit it brings to the communities they live in,” DOLE-6 Director Sixto Rodriguez, Jr. said in a statement.

A flagship employment program of the DOLE, TUPAD provides emergency employment for vulnerable workers by assigning them to render various community services.

Each beneficiary receives a daily wage of P450 to do cleanup in their respective villages for four hours a day for 10 days.

The beneficiaries included 54 workers from Murcia and Calatrava towns and 49 from E.B. Magalona and Manapla towns and Bago City.

There were also 53 from Moises Padila and Binalbagan, and 220 from Cauayan, Ilog and Hinobaan towns.

In Bacolod, some 953 informal workers availed assistance after cleanup and de-clogging of canals in their barangays in time for the MassKara Festival last month. (PNA)