This year, the Department of Labor and Employment is helping around 57,000 students nationwide with its Special Program for Employment of Students. The structure of the program is to absorb temporarily students by various local government units and even private companies across the country this summer, from March 27 to May 31. The money that they will earn from this, as the article reports, can help them pay their tuition and other school expenses this coming school year.

As far as I know, this program has been running since I was in high school. I remember during those times some of my friends worked in the city hall of my hometown. I had wished to do the same, but my parents didn’t allow me. They just obliged us to work in our family business during those summers.

In the news article, acting DOLE Secretary Danilo Cruz sounded like he was romanticizing the SPES. Just like any government program, it is not without flaw. Ok, it might be true that it had benefited almost a million students since it was instituted in 1995. He said that it can help them pay their tuition. However, my classmates that time had been whining for it was already August when they received the pay vouchers. Pay the tuition, huh! Pay for next sem’s tuition?
It is also stated in the news article that in order to qualify, the student’s parents' combined incomes must not exceed P36, 000 per annum. Hello? My friend’s dad is like the Provincial Treasurer. Again, just like any government program, nepotism and “pakikisama” still apply.

That was before.
Now? I don’t know.