Malacañang has voiced optimism that government will be able to meet its targets under President Arroyo’s Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) this year even as the number of workers hired through state-initiated emergency employment efforts rose to more than 370,000 after only ten months of implementation.

Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) said the Arroyo administration is confident that it will be able to provide jobs for a targeted 460,000 unemployed or underemployed individuals by the end of this year, adding that around 40,000 more Filipinos were hired under the CLEEP from August to November alone.

“The government has made critical progress under the program these past few months and it has done so at good pace,” Panganiban said. He said the latest batch of CLEEP beneficiaries brings the total number of workers hired under the government’s special employment operations to some 370,475 individuals.

“This latest tally includes workers hired through President Arroyo’s EO 782 and EO 783, which direct national agencies to hire displaced workers to fill vacant positions in their offices,” Panganiban said.

He said CLEEP beneficiaries are put to work on a wide range of public infrastructure, service and enterprise development projects throughout the country. “Workers hired under the CLEEP are now helping to build our roads, repair our irrigation facilities, protect the environment, and spur the expansion of Filipino trade and commerce, among others,” he said.

Panganiban said that projects under the CLEEP are implemented by some 20 frontline national agencies.

“The Department of Agriculture (DA) has employed the most number of workers under the program so far this year, hiring more than 100,000 Filipinos for such efforts as the construction of farm-to-market roads and the rehabilitation of irrigation systems,” Panganiban.

He said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) ranked second, employing around 71,000 individuals as of November this year for its various environmental protection efforts.