Senator Joel Villanueva on Sunday expressed support for the proposed P8,000-wage subsidy program for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to help business owners retain their workers amid economic difficulties due to the pandemic.
In a statement, the chair of the Senate labor committee said the proposal was a way to “diversify the government’s ayuda program” to assist MSMEs, one of the hardest-hit sectors in the country as the COVID-19 pandemic forced business operations to grind to a halt to prevent the spread of the virus.
“I support it because we have to diversify our ayuda program. The conventional track is to aid workers who have lost their jobs. This one helps workers from losing theirs. We have to invest more in payroll retention and job protection programs that help both employers and workers,” Villanueva said.
“PSA data shows that our MSMEs are 99.5 percent of all registered business enterprises in the country, and they are responsible for 62.4 percent of the country’s total employment,” he said.
“When we aid a struggling MSME, our subsidy cascades down to the workers who will be able to keep their paycheck because we have helped avert a shutdown,” Villanueva noted.
The lawmaker said that pursuing the program would also help the government finance its operations through the taxes generated from the economic activity from MSMEs.
“Our government should not come in only after an employee has become unemployed. It should proactively intervene so that companies employing workers would remain open and their jobs secure,” Villanueva said.
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
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