11,000 jobs available in government infrastructure program

MANILA, Philippines — At least 11,000 jobs will be available to Filipinos as government agencies begin to implement “Build Build Build” projects aimed at reaching the country’s “golden age of infrastructure.”

The agencies launched yesterday the “Job Portal” website showing thousands of job vacancies for government-related construction projects. 

Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said during yesterday’s launch that the job vacancies in the website were sourced from 10 contractors. 

Villar is optimistic that more contractors will be posting job vacancies in the website and the number could soar to 100,000.

“Maybe in the next month there would already be an increase. This is just the first day so we are still collecting the (job) openings in all the regions so we could complete our list,” Villar said.

While the Job Portal is a component of and can be found in the Build Build Build website www.build.gov.ph, it will cover all government infrastructure projects and not only the 75 flagship ones.

The jobs posted online are from contractors with projects with the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation and Bases Conversion and Development Authority. 

“The biggest, boldest and most ambitious infrastructure plan of the Philippine government is also helping us create more jobs for the Filipinos, that is why we encourage everyone especially jobseekers to utilize this new Job Portal and help us build vital infrastructure projects across the country,” Villar said.  

He added the government’s online job hunting website will not only cater to those who are based domestically but can also be accessed by returning overseas Filipino workers who are looking for jobs. 

By accessing the website, they can browse the list of job vacancies and send their applications online. 

Asked if local contractors could offer a competitive salary to the jobs found abroad, Villar said this will depend on the company “but they could offer competitive salaries because there is a big demand for engineers.”

“So our kababayans who are working in the Middle East could expect to find jobs here because we have a lot of infrastructure projects,” Villar said.