Officials of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) urged local micro, small and medium enterprises last week to avail themselves of cash grants to enhance their competitiveness under the Adjustment Measures Program (AMP).
In an orientation on the AMP initiative held last March 27, 2025 at the Liga ng mga Barangay Hall in Virac, DOLE Regional Director Imelda F. Gatinao and her staff as well as personnel from the DOLE Catanduanes provincial office headed by Eduardo Lovedorial briefed more than 50 small business owners, most of them women, to upgrade their workers’ skills and adapt to economic changes using the financial assistance from the national government.
The orientation was spearheaded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through Provincial Director Maria Belma Q. Escueta which is collaborating with DOLE on the implementation of the program in Catanduanes.
In Bicol, the AMP is also intended to help micro enterprises bounce back from the losses inflicted by last year’s calamities.
RD Gatinao told the participants that AMP serves as a buffer fund and safety net for the entrepreneurs, who often serve as their own workers, by helping them create employment opportunities.
The program aims to reduce or mitigate the vulnerability of workers and enterprises from economic disruptions and thereby enhance the capacity for job preservation and generation, improve human resources and enterprise viability and resilience, raise levels of productivity and competitiveness, and actively contribute to the promotion of decent and sustainable work opportunities.
Prospective beneficiaries are micro enterprises (with 1-9 employees and capitalization below P3 million), small enterprises (10-99 employees and P3M-P15M capitalization) and medium enterprises (100-199 employees and P15M-P100M capitalization).
A project under DOLE-AMP may consist of any or a combination of several components: Capacity Building Measures such as trainings to upgrade the technical, professional, and managerial knowledge, skills and competencies of employees; Business Enhancement and Adaptation Measures such as improvement of operational and management systems, reorganization of work processes and methods, acquisition and installation of tools, implements, facilities or technology-based and digital applications, introduction of new technologies; Just Transition Measures including education and training subsidies to support workers and employees; Product Development and Innovation Measures such as setting up of physical facilities or technology applications to improve product quality and packaging, as well as to enhance access to markets and supply and distribution chains; and, Reward Systems and Productivity Enhancement Measures including schemes and methods to operationalize productivity-gain sharing and performance-based incentives.
The guidelines, however, limit to P50,000 each the cost of any equipment to be acquired under the AMP proposal, with the DOLE central office reportedly considering whether to raise the cap to benefit small enterprise which require new equipment in excess of the limit.