After completing their 20-day employment in the city government, the grantees of Summer Program for the Employment of Students or SPES received 60% of their salary on June 7, 2017. The City Treasury Office was in-charged of the releasing.
Under SPES, the grantees will receive the Php275 minimum wage or Php5,500 for the duratiton of their employment. Sixty percent of the salary will be shouldered by the LGU and the rest will be provided by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
SPES is mandated under Republic Act No. 9547 otherwise known as “An Act To Help Poor But Deserving Students Pursue Their Education By Encouraging Their Employment During Summer and/or Christmas Vacations, Through Incentives Granted to Employers, Allowing Them to Pay Only Sixty Per Centum of Their Salaries or Wages and The Forty Per Centum Through Education Vouchers To Be Paid By the Government, Prohibiting and Penalizing The Filing of Fraudulent and Fictitious Claims, and For Other Purposes”.
The program’s objective is to help poor but deserving students pursue their education by providing income through anemployment during the summer.
Before the start of their employment, the grantees underwent an orientation where they were introduced to the workings of the LGU and trained on the conduct of frontline public service providers. The grantees were assigned to the different offices of the city government including the barangays.
At 252 grantees, Tacurong City is among the few LGUs in the province who always have the most number of SPES grantees every year.(YMR, LGU-Tacurong Information)