Who sits on the National Manpower and Youth Council created under the Labor Code?

The government members

The Council is composed mostly of government officials serving in an ex-officio capacity, meaning they sit on the Council because of the office they already hold. The Secretary of Labor chairs it and the Secretary of Education and Culture serves as vice-chairman. Ex-officio members include the Secretaries of Economic Planning, Natural Resources, Social Welfare, Local Government, Science and Technology, and Trade and Industry, plus the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission and the Council's own Director-General, who does not vote. This structure reflects a deliberate choice to keep manpower policy under a single Cabinet-level chair rather than splitting it across several equally-ranked departments, which helps the Council speak with one voice when it sets training priorities.

The private-sector members

Beyond the government officials, the President appoints five representatives from outside government, each serving a three-year term: two from national organizations of employers, two from national workers' organizations, and one from national family and youth organizations. Their presence is meant to give both labor and business, plus youth and family groups, a direct voice in the Council's policy and program decisions.

Why the Council was created

Article 45 exists to implement the objective set out earlier in the same title: developing the country's manpower and accelerating economic growth through coordinated planning. Rather than leaving training and manpower policy to a single department, the law places representatives from labor, education, planning, natural resources, civil service, social welfare, local government, science and trade agencies on one body, alongside private-sector voices, so that manpower programs are coordinated across government and industry rather than fragmented. That coordinating function is also why the Council's membership is deliberately wide: manpower and youth policy touches natural resources, local government, science and trade agencies as much as it touches labor and education, so each of those departments has a formal seat at the table.

What this composition means in practice

Knowing who sits on the Council clarifies where authority over national manpower and youth training policy is centered: with the Secretary of Labor as chair, working alongside other Cabinet-level officials and appointed private-sector representatives from employer groups, worker groups, and family and youth organizations. Anyone dealing with a national training program, livelihood initiative, or youth employment policy administered under this title is ultimately working within a structure this article defines. Because the Director-General does not vote, that office functions as the Council's administrator and secretariat head rather than as another policy voice competing with the Cabinet officials and private-sector appointees who do vote.

Related provisions

• Labor Code, Article 44 — Manpower And Entrepreneurship Defined
• Labor Code, Article 46 — National Manpower Plan