The Arroyo administration has taken steps to hire more than 93,000 unemployed or underemployed Filipinos for a P1.77 billion roadside maintenance program this year following President Arroyo’s call for national agencies to strengthen the country’s economic foundations in the face of continuing uncertainties in the global economy and the international labor markets, Malacañang has announced.

Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) said the move is line with the development plans of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Arroyo administration’s Economic Resiliency Program (ERP).

“The country’s national roads are essential to the strength and stability of the economy, helping to encourage investments and create jobs for a vast number of the Filipino poor,” Panganiban said.

NAPC, which is under the Office of the President, oversees the Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP), launched by the President in October 2008 to address the need for new jobs as a result of the global economic meltdown.

“The workers will see to the maintenance of around 30,000 kilometers of national roads under the Out of School Youth Towards Economic Recovery (OYSTER) Program of the DPWH” Panganiban said.

He said the DPWH had already met a considerable portion of its emergency employment targets, hiring 42,930 workers for various roadside maintenance projects nationwide as of September 30,2009.

“While experts have noted signs of recovery in the global economy, now is not the time for complacency. We are still in the thick of what is probably the worst economic slump in modern history,” the NAPC chief said.