Some 13,918 barangays across the country have benefitted from different livelihood programs of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Reporting to President Rodrigo Duterte over the weekend, Secretary Ramon Lopez said DTI extended livelihood training and assistance to 154,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Lopez said the DTI assists local and overseas workers who were displaced from their jobs amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

The Livelihood Seeding Program provides livelihood kits worth PHP5,000 to PHP10,000 while the Programa sa Pangkabuhayan sa Pagbangon at Ginhawa conducts trainings in entrepreneurship to those affected by calamities, has provided 24,000 livelihood kits, and assisted 26,930.

“We teach them how to fish rather than dole out PHP10,000,” Lopez said during the Cabinet meeting and Talk to the People on Friday night and aired Saturday morning.

DTI also gives access to financing arm Small Business (SB) Corp, which offers zero-interest loans to existing MSMEs affected by the Covid-19 under its Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program.

Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, SB Corp. has been rolling out low-interest loans through the Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso (P3) Program.

The P3 Program provides microloans so the intended beneficiaries will avoid loan sharks.