ZAMBOANGA CITY — A total of 1,400 college students hired by the city government through the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) have started working on Monday.
Socorro Rojas, the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) chief, said the first batch started working at 9 a.m. Monday in the barangays and selected government offices after they had undergone orientation.
In total, Rojas said the city government hired 2,766 students — 1,400 college and 1,366 high school — through the SPES program this year.
Rojas, also the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) chief, said the work period for each batch is 20 days.
Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar spearheaded the conduct of the orientation held at the Vitaliano Agan coliseum.
Salazar exhorted the students to make the most out of the privilege granted to them by the local government through the SPES and help build back a better Zamboanga City.
The SPES is an annual joint undertaking of the city government and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) at 60-40 percent sharing.
Rojas said the city government has allocated P15 million for the program this year that caused the increase in salaries of the beneficiaries.
She said each student will have a daily salary rate of P477.73 or a total of P9,554 for the 20-day period.
She added that the 60 percent salary counterpart of the city is P286.60 daily while the 40 percent will come from the DOLE.
In previous years, each of the students received a daily salary based on the minimum wage law, which was P296.
Rojas said the second batch, which are high school students, will be employed sometime in May, this year. (Teofilo Garcia, Jr/PNA)
