Only 50 percent of the number of students who availed of the annual Special Program for the Employment of Students in Oriental Negros last year will be able to do so this year due to lack of funds.

This year, there will only be a little more than 1,000 SPES beneficiaries compared to almost 2,000 last year, Kendrick Villaluz of the Department of Labor and Employment in Dumaguete City said.

He said the budget allocated for the DOLE-Dumaguete this year is only P1.2 million, from the P6 million intended for Central Visayas, or Region 7. Last year the region got about P7.5 million for the program.

Villaluz said the DOLE shoulders 40 percent of the salaries of SPES workers while the acceptors, or the establishments which hire them, pay 60 percent.

SPES workers will receive the minimum wage and will work between 15 and 20 days.

Most of the acceptors, Villaluz said, are local government units, private establishments and educational institutions.

During the pledging session last week, he said, 16 LGUs and six private firms and schools indicated their interest in becoming partners or acceptors of the program.

The SPES was institutionalized by Republic Act 7323 which took effect in 1992, and was designed to help poor but deserving students.*RA

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