ILOILO CITY, March 16 -- The Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) has already released more or less PHP4 million as cash assistance to the employed sector in Western Visayas who got infected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) from 2021 up to the present.

Regional officer Stephen Barredo, in a media briefing on Thursday, said Covid-19 has been declared by the Department of Labor and Employment and their ECC as an occupational illness.

"The cash assistance benefit is given for workers who contracted Covid-19 while working. The good thing about Covid-19, we are not very strict. We are just asking you to provide certificate of employment with the last day of duty prior to contracting the illness to prove the work-relatedness of C...