THE GOVERNMENT has failed to release about P29.8 million in coronavirus-related funding for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) as of June, according to a senator.

The money was supposed to help migrant Filipinos who have come home, Senator Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva said at a hearing of the Senate labor committee on Tuesday.

The Senate body was looking at a government plans to re-integrate more than 145,000 overseas Filipinos who returned amid a coronavirus pandemic.

Labor Undersecretary Joji V. Aragon blamed the delay in the fund release to a Luzon-wide lockdown that started in mid-March. He said the agency would look into the matter.

She said the Labor department was working with the outsourcing industry to help give jobs to returning Filipino workers.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said it would offer a group livelihood program to migrant workers worth as much as P1 million. — Charmaine A. Tadalan

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