City Council approves daily allowance for gov’t interns
The Cebu City Council has passed an ordinance which provides a daily allowance to government interns that is equivalent to a minimum wage as well as proper framework of its guidelines.
During the regular session on Wednesday, the ordinance authored by Councilor Rey Gealon entitled, “An Ordinance Institutionalizing the Government Internship Program (GIP) in the City of Cebu” was unanimously approved by the legislative body.
The ordinance stemmed from the Executive Order No. 139 series of 1993 that aims to “provide opportunities and engage young workers into public service by involving them with government programs and projects, through government agencies/entities at the national and local level.”
An emphasis of the ordinance states that GIP seeks to engage the youth into public service.
“There is a need to institutionalize the Government Internship Program (GIP) in the City of Cebu that directly contributes to the goal of inclusive growth through employment generation,” a citation of the ordinance reads.
As the ordinance states, the internship agreement shall be in 30 working days. In line with this, an intern will be entitled to a daily allowance equivalent to the prevailing and applicable daily minimum wage rate in the Central Visayas Region for the services rendered.
For the requirements, a GIP beneficiary should be 18 to 35 years old and must be a resident of Cebu City. Aside from this, the GIP beneficiary must also be at least a high school or senior high school graduate, or its equivalent level under the Alternative Learning System (ALS) and is enrolled during the school year or term immediately before the internship period.
Among the facts established in the ordinance is that there will be a budget that will be allocated annually and will be sourced out of the funds from Cebu City’s Public Employment Services Office (PESO).
For 2024, the initial budget of P10 million of the PESO shall be utilized for the implementation of the said ordinance.