The labor department said at least 7,138 workers stand to benefit from the short-term emergency employment program.

“Our goal here is to provide our displaced workers immediate relief from the calamity by giving them income, and at the same time, enlist them for the rehabilitation, clearing and cleaning of their affected communities,” Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said.

In a separate statement, Baldoz, likewise, said the award of a P645-million ($15 million) grant for the Philippines to support sustainable efforts to combat exploitative child labor in principal sugarcane-growing regions of the country is a strong recognition of the country’s efforts in combating child labor in its worst forms.

“I am pleased about the US DOL [United States Department of Labor] grant of $15 million. This is a clear recognition of our contribution to the global fight against child labor, and of the Philippine government’s cooperation with the private sector in mounting concerted action to eliminate or prevent this menace to society,” Baldoz said on Saturday.

Baldoz recalled that the DOLE had earlier endorsed to the US DOL the award of the grant to World Vision, a leading partner of the Philippine Program Against Child Labor (PPACL), which currently provides educational assistance to about 30,000 children engaged in or at risk of the worst forms of child labor through its project, “Combating Child Labor in the Philippines through Education: The ABK Initiative-Phase II.” The DOLE is the lead implementing agency of the PPACL.

The workers who stand to benefit are those from Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Cordillera and Metro Manila.

The beneficiaries of the emergency employment will engage in clearing, cleaning, and declogging of drainage and other small infrastructure in typhoon-affected communities.

“They will also be tasked to do repair work on government facilities, such as school buildings and municipal halls,” Baldoz said.

Baldoz said the beneficiaries will be employed from between 15 to 30 days.

Baldoz added that she has directed the concerned DOLE regional offices to mobilize the worker-beneficiaries who will be deployed immediately to clean the drainage, canals, schools and evacuation centers once the flood subsides.

The amount of P31.6 million will be sourced by the DOLE from its Adjustments Measures Program, a DOLE intervention for temporarily displaced workers in the agriculture and nonagriculture sectors. It shall be distributed to the following regions with the corresponding number of beneficiaries:

• Region 1, P4 million for 550 workers;
• Region 2, P4.5 million for 760 workers;
• Region 3, P11.1 million for 3,900 workers;
• Cordillera Administrative Region, P4 million for 300 workers; and
• National Capital Region, P8 million for 2,300 workers.

Early this week, Baldoz has approved the release of the initial amount of P3 million in emergency employment assistance for not less than a thousand workers/heads of families in Hagonoy, Calumpit, Obando and Paombong in the province of Bulacan.

She has also approved the release of another P930,000 for 15 municipalities in Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and La Union. The emergency employment assistance will benefit 375 farmers and fishermen from Calasiao, Sta. Barbara, Labrador, San Carlos City and Laoac in Pangasinan; San Vicente and Sta. Catalina in Ilocos Sur; Pasuquin, Bacarra, San Nicolas, Solsona, Dingras, Laoag City and Paoay in Ilocos Norte; and Aringay in La Union.