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Legarda leads hearing on DOLE 2023 budget: Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda presides over the Finance Subcommittee G hearing on the proposed 2023 budget of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) amounting to P25.9 billion Friday, October 14, 2022. Legarda asked labor officials to provide a database of industries that died not because of the COVID-19 pandemic but because of lack of support for equipment and capital so that funding can be earmarked to resuscitate these industries. Legarda said to revive the dying salt industry, a database of coastal communities should help identify the areas where the new technology of salt-making could be taught. The Senate leader also pointed out that the lockdown during the pandemic is “not necessarily bad” because jobs were created in the provinces with the help of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Sustainable Livelihood Program, the Department of Trade and Industry’s Shared Services Facilities, the Department of Science and Technology’s Community Empowerment for Science and Technology, DOLE’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/ Displaced Workers, among others. “With judicious, efficient, and transparent use of government resources, we will be able to create jobs but we need the database in different provinces…” Legarda said. (Albert Calvelo/ Senate PRIB)