Makati hires young residents for summer work program

MANILA, Philippines - The Makati City government has hired some 5,000 young city residents through its Public Employment Services Office (PESO) for the Government Internship Program (GIP) and the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) this summer.

In a report to Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay, Makati PESO manager and city personnel officer Vissia Marie P. Aldon said under GIP, 3,500 out-of-school youths have been hired out of 5,857 applicants.  Under SPES, 1,500 students on summer break have been hired out of 4,447 applicants.

For this year, the city government has allocated P50-million for the twin summer programs.

Aldon said the programs are aimed to help young students and out-of-school youth in the city earn additional income for their school needs and other basic needs, while learning new skills at the same time.

According to Aldon, the two programs will run for 23 days – GIP from April 8 to May 14 and SPES from May 2 to 31.  Around 1,000 GIP hires have been assigned to city and national government agencies while the rest have been asked to assist in various barangays of Makati.

GIP beneficiaries will receive a daily compensation of P349.50 for a total of P8,038.50. On the other hand, SPES beneficiaries will receive P466.00 as their daily wage for a total of P10,718.00, with 60 percent coming from the LGU and 40 percent from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), its program partner. Beneficiaries of the two programs will work eight hours daily.

Among the tasks given to SPES hirees are community works, Brigada Eskwela work, Skills Registry Systems (SRS) encoding, and clerical works. GIP workers, on the other hand, have been tasked to conduct SRS survey in the barangays, community service and clerical works.

GIP is a summer job program first implemented in 1999 with the aim of providing temporary yet gainful employment to Makati students and out-of-school youth ages 18-25. SPES was first implemented in 1993 pursuant to the new implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 9547 (Strengthening and Expanding the Coverage of the Special Program for Employment of Students) amending Republic Act 7323 (Special Program for the Employment of Students, which strengthened and expanded the coverage of the SPES.