President Arroyo is to pay 180,000 people to plant trees across the archipelago as part of efforts to ease the fallout from the global economic meltdown, the government said Thursday.

The P7-billion (148.7 million-dollar) program, to be put in place over the next six months, will be funded by government ministries, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters.

More than 15,000 people have lost their jobs in the Philippines over the past two months, mostly in the crucial electronics and garments sectors, amid plunging demand for Filipino exports.

The government fears the number could rise to 800,000 people for the entire year before economic recovery sets in.

Congress has passed a 300 billion-peso stimulus package to help the Philippines spend its way out of the slowdown.

"The point is, there are measures being done by the administration to address employment," Ermita said, announcing the program to create 180,000 jobs.

"Our people need not worry," he added.

Ermita said the contractual job offers would be in the so-called "green-collar" category such as "re-greening of logged-over uplands" and the "regeneration of mangrove areas."

Job-seekers would also be paid to clean up coastal areas, plant coconuts, while Manila would fund efforts to retrofit petrol-burning buses to run on liquefied petroleum gas and install solar panels and generate electricity that harnesses rivers in rural areas.