Press Release
April 20, 2008

Senate moves to expand student jobs plan

The Senate committees on labor, employment and human resources development and on finance have jointly endorsed a bill seeking to expand an educational financing program so that a greater number of underprivileged high school and college students may benefit from it.

The two committees approved for floor debate Senate Bill 2116, which seeks to expand the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES), through reforms that would make the scheme more responsive to prevailing conditions.

The measure is a unified version of five bills introduced separately by Senators Loren Legarda, Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon Revilla Jr., Edgardo Angara and Manuel Lapid.

Mandated by Republic Act 7323, the SPES helps students 15 to 25 years old support themselves through their gainful employment in private firms and public offices during the summer and Christmas breaks.

Under the expanded SPES, students in tertiary, vocational or technological schools may be employed at any time of the year, not just during the summer or Christmas breaks.

However, high school students may be engaged under the SPES only during the summer and Christmas vacations.

Also under the enlarged SPES, firms with at least 15 regular workers may hire qualified students. At present, only firms with a minimum of 50 regular employees may engage youths under the program.

Since 1993, the SPES has benefited an average of 80,000 students every year. The number of beneficiaries would increase considerably once the bill is enacted.

"Besides allowing more firms to hire students, the SPES budget will be augmented automatically by 20 percent every year. We also banned the impoundment of funds to insulate the program from nasty partisan politics," Legarda said.

"We are purposely building up the SPES in view of the growing number of youths desperately looking for work so that they will have enough to pay for their schooling," Legarda said.

Filipinos aged 15 to 24 now comprise more than half of 2.2 million members of the labor force that are totally jobless, according to Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on economic affairs.

Under the SPES, fully employed students get a salary not lower than the lawful minimum wage. Employers pay 60 percent of the wage in cash. The government covers the rest in education vouchers that may be used to pay for tuition and books.

The bill also relaxes the annual family income ceiling for aspirants to qualify for jobs, and penalizes schools and bookstores that refuse to honor the government-issued education vouchers.

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