Temporary jobs program in rural areas pushed as anti-poverty tack

MANILA, Philippines — While government data may paint a rosier employment picture, opposition Sen. Francis Pangilinan continues to push for a program to give temporary jobs to poor, qualified beneficiaries in rural areas.

Under Senate Bill No. 776 filed in July, Pangilinan said those qualified would benefit from the Rural Employment Assistance Program (REAP), which would allow them to earn at least three-fourths of the minimum wage for each day of work.

The program would offer “temporary employment” to any qualified member of poor households in the rural areas who would volunteer for “unskilled labor” for 45 to 90 days.

In the bill’s explanatory note, Pangilinan said the program was a poverty alleviation measure targeting rural areas, which are lagging in development.

“Most of the poor live in these areas and work in the agriculture and fisheries sector,” said the bill.

“Farmers and fishermen have consistently registered the highest poverty incidence among basic sectors since 2006,” the bill added.

The latest Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the unemployment rate in the country had declined from 5.5 percent in April 2018 to just 5.1 percent in April 2019.

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