THE recent National Employment Summit on June 26-27, 2024, held by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), with support from the International Labor Organization (ILO), culminated with the signing of a 10-Year Trabaho Para sa Bayan (TPB) masterplan.

This document is both timely and important. After the summit formally closed, I had the opportunity to interview Labor Undersecretary Carmela Torres, head of DoLE's Employment and Human Resource Development cluster. Following are excerpts from our conversation.