Binay urges timely compensation for working students under DOLE program

Citing the delay of payment for working students two years ago, Vice President Jejomar Binay urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to assure timely compensation for students who worked during the summer and Christmas Break.

According to Binay’s camp, the release of DOLE’s 40% share in the payment for working students under the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) was delayed in 2013 for 1-433 days.

As required by law, students should be paid within an 11-day period.

“This shows us that the poor students did not receive what was due them during the required period. The government, through DOLE, failed to augment their income to help them continue their education as envisioned by the law,” Joey Salgado, chief of the Office of the Vice President media affairs, said in a statement in Filipino.

Salgado said DOLE failed to give documents needed by the students to claim their checks.

COA also reported that 1,052 checks totaling P2,304,476.19 prepared from July 2004 to June 2013 remained unclaimed and became stale while another set of 1,619 checks amounting to P4,967,876.94 prepared from July to December 2013 were not released or claimed.