Citizens urged to monitor LGUs that will implement $6-million program funded by Spain

National government officials on Monday urged citizens and civil society groups to keep an eye on local government officials who may take advantage of a foreign-funded vocational training program for the youth to boost their popularity among the voters for next year’s elections.

The Spanish government is providing US$6 million to train young people in four provinces, namely Masbate in the Bicol Region, Antique in Western Visayas, Agusan del Sur in Caraga, and Maguindanao in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The project funded by Spain’s Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) targets 10,000 men and women, aged 15 to 24 years, in these provinces where there is high incidence of poverty, out-migration, low enrolment rates, and huge number of out-of-school youth.

“It’s really up to the people to judge if these programs are being misused and abused by the politicians,” Rolando Tungpalan, deputy director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), told Newsbreak.

Various national government agencies, NGOs, and youth organizations are involved in the program, but it is the local governments units that will be at the forefront of the implementation.

“If people and partners are watching, that’s a deterrent,” Tungpalan said.

Government officials have been the target of criticisms recently for allegedly using some projects implemented by their offices to gain popularity in preparation for the 2010 national and local elections.

“We are hoping that politicians will not [take advantage of this project] because we are trying to open this to the general public,” Labor Secretary Marianito Roque told Newsbreak.

Roque stressed that the endorsement by politicians are not needed to get slots in any training programs.

The project is expected to provide technical and entrepreneurial skills training to out-of-school youth, in-school youth with high probability of dropping out, high school graduates without technical skills, overseas Filipino workers, and youth left behind by OFW parents.

“This program is not about creating jobs. This is about giving youth the opportunity and ability to be able to seek suitable employment,” said Vanessa Tobin, United Nations interim resident coordinator.

Of the 88.57 million Filipinos as of 2007, 20 percent fall between the ages of 15 and 24, with almost half of them (49.2 percent) unemployed. The youth, meanwhile, accounts for 35 percent of the total overseas Filipino workers population, whose remittances keep the economy afloat.

“In the Philippines, high population growth and an education system in crisis have resulted in high unemployment rate,” Tobin said.

Roque, meanwhile, added that the project cannot directly address the out-migration happening in some provinces due to lack of job opportunities.

“It will not minimize outmigration itself,” Roque said, adding that more programs are needed to solve the exodus of workers from the provinces. (Newsbreak)

---

INTERACT WITH THIS ARTICLE