BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson ordered Provincial Tourism Officer Jennylind Cordero yesterday to start accepting applicants for the P5,000 financial assistance from the Department of Tourism for displaced workers in the tourism industry.
Lacson said that, of the P3.1 billion Bayanihan fund, 20 percent had been distributed according to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat during a tourism stakeholders meeting in Bacolod City on Tuesday.
He said Puyat wants to give out the P5,000 financial assistance, as the funds may revert to the Department of Finance if unused.
During the dialog, Lacson said that Puyat asked for help in identifying the tourism workers, who are entitled to the financial assistance.
He said that displaced tourism workers have until March to avail of it.
“We have to move fast,” Lacson said and instructed Cordero to coordinate with the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Negros Occidental, so that their displaced tourism workers can avail of the assistance.
Puyat said the tourism industry is one of the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. DOT has extended P8.7 million financial assistance to 1,754 beneficiaries in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City.*
