SENATOR Juan Edgardo ‘Sonny’ Angara on Sunday called on the Filipino youth, particularly those hit hard by the Covid19 pandemic, to avail of jobs offered under Republic Act 10917 or the Expanded Special Program for Employment of Students law.

As the author of RA 10917 in the Senate, Angara said the law is timely during this pandemic when many families suffered from job loses.

“One significant amendment we introduced in the SPES law was the inclusion of the dependents of displaced workers and would-be displaced workers due to business closures or work stoppages in the program. With what is being experienced by many Filipino families now, this will help keep their children in school,” he said.

Last year, the Department of Education expected the number of out-of-school youth to reach four million because of the pandemic.

While the spike in OSY numbers includes students from private schools who opted against enrolling in the previous school year because of the prohibition on face-to-face classes, Angara said the data remains alarming.

In 2017, the Philippine Statistics Authority said that nine percent or 3.53 million of the estimated 39.2 Filipinos aged 6 to 24 years old were considered OSY.

Of that number, 83.1 percent consist of individuals 16 to 24 years old;  11.2 percent were 12 to 15 years old; and 5.7 percent were 6 to 11 years old.

Around 50 percent of OSY belong to families whose income fall within the bottom 30% of the population based on their per capita income.

Enacted in 2016, RA 10917 offers temporary employment to qualified individuals for 20 to 78 days.

The law also raised the age limit of the program’s beneficiaries from 15 to 25 years old to 15 to 30 years old.

Sixty percent of the salary of the beneficiaries will be paid by the employer, while the remaining 40 percent will be shouldered by the government, to be paid in cash and used for the students’ tuition and other education-related expenses.

Under the Expanded SPES law, OSY and those enrolled in the tertiary, vocational or technical education may be employed any time of the year, while students enrolled in the secondary level can be employed only during summer and/or Christmas vacations.

“Ang halagang makukuha ng ating mga kabataan mula sa SPES ay makatutulong sa pagtustos nila sa mga gastusin sa kanilang pag-aaral,” Angara said.