Philippines speeds up employment program in typhoon-hit areas

The Philippine government is beefing up emergency employment program to help alleviate the plight of workers displaced by typhoon Haiyan, or Yolanda. a government official said Sunday. The emergency employment program aims at helping disaster- stricken families to rebuild their lives by providing them with better access to sustainable income sources, Presidential Communications Operation Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said. He said some 3,000 residents from 22 villages in worst-hit Tacloban city and 70 villages in Ormoc, another seriously affected city in Leyte province, would benefit from the employment project which include the cash-for-work and food-for-work programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Agriculture. The International Labor Organization (ILO) is also helping the government in organizing emergency employment program to help the Filipinos who lost their livelihoods due to the devastation brought by Yolanda.