Philippines approves US$1b wage aid to 3.4m workers

FILE PHOTO: A long queue of motorists has formed as police officers attempt to check every individual's body temperature at a checkpoint placed amidst the lockdown of the country's capital to contain the spread of coronavirus, in the outskirts of Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, March 15, 2020. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez/File Photo

MANILA: The Philippines will extend 51 billion pesos ($1 billion) in wage subsidy to 3.4 million workers in small businesses, adding to the costs of a lockdown that has shut the nation’s economic engine.

The government will prioritise 2.6 million whose employers have updated tax payments and pension fund contributions, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua said in a late Monday briefing along with President Rodrigo Duterte. The subsidy will be as much as 8,000 pesos for every qualified person for two months, according to a separate statement.