To cushion the impact of the pandemic on overseas Bangsamoro workers, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) government has distributed PHP20,000 cash aid each to some 400 of these workers in the city’s 37 villages.

On Wednesday, Minister Romeo Sema of the Ministry of Labor and Employment – BARMM, said the cash aid was part of his office’s reintegration program for the overseas workers dubbed “Hanapbuhay for Bangsamoro Balik Manggagawa.”

Sema has assured distressed Bangsamoro workers from abroad of the regional government’s intervention when they return home.

He assured that BARMM will continuously provide and promote gainful, inclusive, and genuinely equal employment opportunities for every working constituent.

“This reintegration program is a manifestation of moral governance and of our commitment to serving the people in the region. Our ministry promotes opportunities within our homeland so that the Bangsamoro people would not have to go outside the country just to find jobs,” Sema said.

More than 2,000 overseas workers from across BARMM provinces are expected to receive similar aid from the MOLE.

“I never thought the government would still attend to our needs, it is only now that I receive the aid of this kind from BARMM,” Hadja Bainot, one of the beneficiaries of the program, said in the vernacular here.

Another beneficiary, Monena Esmael Embong, 46, lauded the MOLE for coming up with the program because she now has capital for her livelihood mini-grocery store.

“This is a new start for me and my family. I will take care of this blessing,” she said.

The BARMM comprises the cities of Cotabato, Marawi and Lamitan; the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi; and the 63 villages in six towns of North Cotabato. (PNA)