Efforts to ensure employment for senior citizens in the Philippines gained a boost after the House committee on ways and means, a House of Representatives committee, approved a bill providing for it, reports Philstar Global. The panel chaired by Representative Joey Salceda passed the unnumbered bill, which consolidates related measures expanding employment opportunities for the elderly. The bill mandates the state to employ seniors who have the capacity and desire to work or be re-employed. Seniors would be matched with available job opportunities by the Department of Labor and Employment.

“All government agencies and private entities shall institute an employment program that shall promote the general well-being of senior citizens and ensure access to employment opportunities to those who have the qualifications, capacity and interest to be employed,” the bill reads. The measure shall be known as the “Employment Opportunities for Senior Citizen and Private Entities’ Incentives Act.”